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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 



THE BUILDING TRADES 



THE SURVEY COMMITTEE OF THE 
CLEVELAND FOUNDATION 

Charles E. Adams, Chairman 

Thomas G. Fitzsimons 

Myrta L. Jones 

Bascom Little 

Victor W. Sincere 



Arthur D. Baldwin, Secretary 

James R. Garfield, Counsel 

Allen T. Burns, Director 

THE EDUCATION SURVEY 
Leonard P. Ayres, Director 



CLEVELAND EDUCATION SURVEY 

THE BUILDING TRADES 



BY 

FRANK L. SHAW 




THE SURVEY COMMITTEE OF THE 

CLEVELAND FOUNDATION 

CLEVELAND • OHIO 

15 1916 



CoUec-ua <s >«- + 






Copyright, 1916, by 

the survey committee of the 
cleveland foundation 




WM'F. FELL CO* PRINTERS 
PHILADELPHIA 

MAk 30 i9i6 

©CI.A427453 

W / . 
i ' 



FOREWORD 

This report on "The Building Trades" is one of 
the 25 sections of the report of the Education 
Survey of Cleveland conducted by the Survey 
Committee of the Cleveland Foundation in 1915. 
Twenty-three of these sections will be published 
as separate monographs. In addition there will 
be a larger volume giving a summary of the find- 
ings and recommendations relating to the regular 
work of the public schools, and a second similar 
volume giving the summary of those sections 
relating to industrial education. Copies of all 
these publications may be obtained from the 
Cleveland Foundation. They may also be ob- 
tained from the Division of Education of the 
Russell Sage Foundation, New York City. A 
complete list will be found in the back of this 
volume, together with prices. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Foreword 5 

List of Tables 9 

List of Diagrams 10 

List of Illustrations 10 

CHAPTER 

I. Nature op Building Work 11 

Variety and value of building 12 

Contractors 16 

Laborers 17 

Bricklayers 17 

Carpenters 18 

Painters 19 

Plumbers 20 

Steam-fitters 21 

Inside wiremen 21 

Lathers and plasterers 22 

Sheet metal workers 22 

Structural iron workers 23 

Hoisting engineers 24 

Other trades 24 

Repair work 25 

Changing character of the work 25 

Summary 27 

II. Number in the Trades and Sources op Supply 29 

Number in the trades 29 

Many workers come from abroad 32 

Workers drawn from neighboring towns 34 

Helpers 34 

Apprentices 35 

Form of apprenticeship contract 38 

Summary 39 



III. Conditions of Labor 41 

Earnings 43 

Rates of pay 46 

Hours 53 

Regularity of employment 53 

Health conditions and accident risks 59 

Promotion 62 

Summary 64 

IV. Training Before the Boy Leaves School 67 

The junior high school 70 

Mathematics 71 

Shop work 74 

Drawing 75 

Elementary science 77 

Industrial information 79 

The technical high schools 79 

The need for a two-year vocational course 80 

Summary 81 

V. Training After Leaving School 84 

Attitude of the unions 86 

Technical night schools 87 

Dull season classes 90 

Training for journeymen and helpers 91 

Summary 97 

VI. A Summary of Training Recommendations 100 

1. Reduce retardation 100 

2. General industrial courses in seventh, eighth, 

and ninth grades 101 

3. A two-year industrial trade school 102 

4. Trade extension classes for apprentices 104 

5. Trade extension work for journeymen 105 



LIST OF TABLES 

TABLE PAGH 

1. Abstract of building operations in Cleveland, 1914 15 

2. Estimated number of men engaged in building trades 

in Cleveland, 1915 30 

3. Percentage of workers in four building trades in 1900 

and 1910 that were foreign born 32 

4. Union regulations as to entering age of apprentices 36 

5. Union regulations as to length of apprenticeship period 36 

6. Number of apprentices or helpers allowed in various 

building trades 39 

7. Union scale of wages in the building trades, May 1, 

1915 47 

8. Hourly rates for construction and maintenance work 49 

9. Usual hourly wages of five largest building trades and 

five largest other trades 50 

10. Rate of wages in the five principal building trades in 

16 large cities, July, 1915 50 

11. Union wage rates in 1907 and 1915 in principal build- 

ing trades in Cleveland 51 

12. Estimated average yearly earnings in the five largest 

building trades and the five largest other trades 52 

13. Usual weekly wages of apprentices in three building 

trades 52 

14. Union scale of hourly rates for helpers in six building 

trades 53 

15. Distribution of 101 journeymen and helpers in the 

building trades in the technical night schools 92 

16. Percentage of apprentices, helpers, and journeymen in 

building trades enrolled in the technical night 
schools 93 



LIST OF DIAGRAMS 

DIAGRAM PAGE 

1. Relative cost of buildings erected in Cleveland in 

1890, 1900, 1910, and 1914 14 

2. Percentage of increase or decrease from 1900 to 1910 

in workers in building trades and in the popula- 
tion of Cleveland 31 

3. Percentage of workers in building trades that are for- 

eign born, native born of foreign parents, and 
native born of native parents 33 

4. Percentage of men employed in building construction 

and in four other industries earning specified 
amounts 44 

5. Percentage of men in each of eight building industries 

earning specified amounts 45 

6. Percentage of men in the printing and in the building 

trades employed each month during the year 56 

7. Maximum unemployment in nine building industries 58 

8. Average unemployment in nine building industries 60 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAGE 

Cleveland Art Museum after 29 months' work Frontispiece * 

Excavating for foundation of Art Museum 19 

Art Museum after four months' work 25 "" 

Art Museum after seven and one-half months' work 37 

Snow often interrupts building work 55^ 

Art Museum after 10 months' work 69^ 

Art Museum after eleven and one-half months' work 75 

Art Museum after fifteen and one-half months' work 81^ 

Art Museum after 17 months' work 87^ 

Art Museum after 22 months' work 91- / " 



THE BUILDING TRADES 

CHAPTER I 

NATURE OF BUILDING WORK 

There has been rapid progress in the art of building 
since the days when our pioneer forefathers built 
crude log-cabins to shelter themselves against the 
severity of American winters. The homes of the col- 
onists were naturally constructed of timber because 
of the abundance of native woods; and so the frame 
house speedily developed in this country. The brick 
form of building, most common in the England of 
those days, was not extensively copied here because 
of the scarcity of skilled labor. The European house 
usually had brick walls supporting its floors and 
roof, but the frame house that came into vogue in 
America was supported by its frame of heavy tim- 
bers. The walls were fastened on afterwards. In 
course of time, with the invention of modern methods 
of sawing, these frames were built less heavy, until 
at length the modern frame construction as we know 
it was introduced. These newer buildings were less 
wasteful of lumber than the earlier ones, and this 
was an item that had to be considered, for even in 

11 



the early days heavy timber rapidly became less 
abundant as the population increased and spread. 



Vakiety and Value of Building 
The steel skyscraper is characteristically American. 
Cities grew up with amazing rapidity, involving a 
consequent rise in the price of land. The invention 
of modern machinery and the coincidental rise of the 
factory system had not a little to do with this urban 
movement. And so a form of construction had to 
be discovered or devised which would house more 
people on a smaller land area. That meant taller 
buildings. This demand came earliest and most in- 
sistently in New York City, where the narrow con- 
fines of the island of Manhattan enclosed a larger 
population in a smaller area than was the case any- 
where else in America. As a result buildings of ever 
increasing height were constructed until the city 
had what were then regarded as skyscrapers as 
much as eight stories high. But experience showed 
that in order to have sufficient strength brick and 
masonry buildings of this height required such im- 
mensely thick walls that but little light entered 
through the windows of the lowest stories. As a re- 
sult America developed modern steel-frame build- 
ings in which the walls of stone or brick are supported 
by the metal beams instead of themselves being the 
support of the rest of the building. Today the erec- 
tion of wooden buildings within certain limits is 
strictly forbidden in all large cities, so urgent is the 

12 



public insistence on fireproof construction. In part, 
this popular demand has been met by the use of 
concrete reinforced with steel rods, not only for the 
frame work, but often for the walls, floors, and parti- 
tions as well. 

Although it is true that in Cleveland more wooden 
frame buildings than any other kind are erected 
today, the amount of money spent for buildings made 
of brick, tile, steel, or cement is greater. Also there is 
an increasing tendency, year by year, to use these 
fireproof materials. The report of the Division of 
Buildings clearly shows this steady tendency during 
the last 25 years. Diagram 1, on page 14, is based on 
the annual reports of the Department of Public 
Safety of the City of Cleveland for 1890, 1900, 1910, 
and 1914, and shows the relative amounts spent for 
new buildings of wood and of fireproof materials. 
It is interesting to note that during this period total 
building operations increased in cost from $4,327,405 
to $23,595,960. In 1890 about four per cent of the 
new permits issued were for brick buildings; in 1900 
this proportion had increased to nearly nine per cent, 
and in 1914 to 20 per cent. Take another standard 
of comparison. In 1890 brick construction repre- 
sented 32 per cent of the total value of the new 
buildings erected that year; in 1900 this had in- 
creased to 50 per cent and in 1914 to 62 per cent. 

In other words, a quarter of a century ago brick 
construction comprised less than one-third of all 
building work; today it comprises almost two- 
thirds. It should be noted that the term " brick," 

13 



as used in these city reports, refers to all construc- 
tion that is not of wood. It should be added that 
wood is being displaced not only as the principal 
material used in frames and other heavier parts 
of building, but also in the making of interior fittings 
such as moldings and sash. 




1890 1900 1910 191^ 



Diagram 1. — Relative cost of buildings erected in Cleveland in 
1890, 1900, 1910, and 1914. Black sections show percentage 
spent for brick construction and outline sections percentage 
spent for wood 



To bring out more clearly the variety and value of 
buildings being erected in Cleveland, Table 1 is pre- 
sented. This is a statistical abstract of building 
operations for 1914, as reported by the Division of 

14 



Buildings, and is typical of the distribution in recent 
years. 

TABLE 1.— ABSTRACT OF BUILDING OPERATIONS IN CLEVE- 
LAND, 1914 



Kind of building 


Number 


Value 


Frame dwelling 


2,630 


$8,262,910 


Brick apartment 


325 


4,306,000 


Manufacturing 


88 


3,008,150 


Public 


4 


2,128,000 


Alteration of brick dwelling 


388 


1,299,400 


Store 


109 


1,237,100 


Alteration of frame dwelling 


2,051 


959,785 


Minor alterations 


6,020 


836,975 


Office 


13 


824,900 


Storage 


56 


785,300 


Assembly- 


26 


676,000 


School 


5 


560,000 


Frame apartment 


96 


511,900 


Brick dwelling 


64 


453,700 


Detention 


2 


375,000 


Foundations 


241 


313,750 


Miscellaneous 


630 


298,930 


Moving picture 


15 


222,000 


Hotel 


2 


125,000 


Theatre 


2 


120,000 


Billboard 


23 


4,210 


Total 


12,790 


$27,309,010 



It will be observed that nearly one-third of the 
money spent in 1914 for all building purposes was 
spent for common frame dwellings. The large pro- 
portion of this type of building still being erected, 
in spite of the very considerable increase in the num- 
ber of brick and masonry structures built during the 
past quarter century, will not escape notice. Atten- 
tion should be directed to the place brick apartment 
houses occupy in the building operations of the city, 
and to the large amount of money that is spent for 
alterations and additions to buildings. 

15 



The erection of any modern building is a very com- 
plex operation, involving the employment of any- 
where from 10 to 20 different groups of workers. 
Some of these men will be common laborers, whose 
only asset is their strength; others will need to be 
not only naturally intelligent, but also trained in 
the technical knowledge of their specialty. 



Contractors 
Most people are more or less familiar with the way 
a common frame dwelling is built. First, an archi- 
tect is consulted who makes sketches, draws plans, 
and writes out the specifications. These are sub- 
mitted to contractors for competitive bids. The 
lowest bidder usually gets the contract, which he 
may, and often does, sublet to several others. 

The contractor's estimates are based on careful 
computations of costs and availability. Failure to 
complete a job within a stipulated period frequently 
means that he must forfeit a good share of his profit. 
A man may know all there is to know about the 
theory of building, he may be an expert manager of 
men, but if he cannot figure probable costs he cannot 
hope to succeed. The open doors of the bankruptcy 
courts await the incompetent estimator. It is next 
to impossible for the journeyman, in the course of 
his daily work, to learn much about reckoning build- 
ing costs. He ought to be able to get this valuable 
training somewhere if he is looking forward to estab- 
lishing an independent business. 

16 



Laborers 
After the exact location of the building has been de- 
termined, common laborers begin to excavate for 
cellar and foundation. These men are not masters of 
any trade. They must be able to understand simple 
English and to do what they are told. Throughout 
the construction of the building they will carry lum- 
ber and other materials needed by the skilled men. 

Bricklayers 
After the excavation is completed, the bricklayers 
begin to build the foundation walls. They are the 
first skilled men to work on the house. The stability 
of the whole structure is determined by its founda- 
tion, which, in the case of a frame house, will be car- 
ried to about two feet above grade. If the house is 
to be of wood, the bricklayers will have little more 
to do than build the chimneys. If it is to be of brick, 
they must continue putting up the walls. In brick 
dwelling houses the inside walls are usually built with 
ordinary brick, while the outside walls are made of 
face brick of various shades; sometimes the sub- 
stantial support is an iron or wooden frame veneered 
by a thin brick wall. 

Besides making the walls strong, bricklayers have 
to make them attractive. They accomplish both 
these objects by bonding, which is laying brick in 
such a way that they will hold together the outside 
and inside layers of the wall. This is done by lay- 
ing occasional bricks, called " headers," with ends 
2 17 



towards the outside, so that they reach back and tie 
the inside wall to the front. A regular design is fol- 
lowed and bricks of a different hue are often used as 
"headers" to render more conspicuous the regularity 
of the bond and thus enhance its beauty. 

The work of these bricklayers is not uninterrupted. 
When they have built the wall to the bottom of a 
door or window they must either stop until the 
carpenter sets the frames in place, or else work on 
another part of the wall. After the frames are set 
they will then brick around them. As they proceed 
with their work they must also provide places for 
floor joists, and other supporting timbers, which 
they will build around as soon as the carpenters put 
them in place. These joists, as well as the plates 
which support the rafters, are often anchored to the 
masonry construction by wrought-iron rods. 



Carpentees 
In a frame house carpenters take up the work as soon 
as the bricklayers have finished the foundation. 
They place the sills and erect the studs or posts to 
which the walls and partitions will be fastened. They 
place the joists, stringers, ledges, and rafters, and 
erect the frame. They construct the roof and put on 
the interior and exterior finish, build entrances and 
porches and set doors and window frames. Every- 
thing must be accurately measured, squarely cut, 
properly set, and firmly fastened. 
Few carpenters are versatile enough to do all these 
18 



things. A man usually specializes in some particular 
branch of carpentry. This is particularly true of 
interior trimming, floor laying, and stair-building. 
In addition, there are ship carpenters, railroad car- 
penters, bridge carpenters, car builders, etc. Indeed, 
so wide is the range of building operations which 
the trade covers that the United Brotherhood of 
Carpenters and Joiners has found it necessary to 
publish a book of explicit definitions called "The 
Book of Jurisdictional Claims." Many of the other 
trades publish similar manuals. 

The skill of the carpenter may be said to increase 
as he adds to the number of tools in his kit, or as he 
assumes supervision of the work of others. If his 
job is to build forms for concrete construction, he 
will need only a hammer, saw, and rule; if he is en- 
gaged in putting on interior trim, he may need a 
whole chest of tools. The more tools he can use the 
more likely is he to become an independent worker, 
not relying on a foreman for instruction. This means 
that he must increase his technical knowledge, for 
if he is to lay out work he has to be able to read plans 
and to understand simple geometrical forms and 
operations. 

Painters 
By the time the carpenters have placed the inside 
trim, the painters probably have finished the exterior 
of the house, and are ready to begin on the interior. 
This requires greater skill and in all probability will 
not be done by the same men. Interior painting offers 

19 



a wide range of work. The surfaces to be painted have 
to be more carefully prepared than for exterior paint- 
ing and the work itself offers greater opportunities 
for the exercise of artistic sense. Sometimes the trim 
is not painted but is finished by staining, varnishing, 
waxing, frescoing, or graining. Besides painting or 
finishing the interior trim, painters are often called 
on to decorate the plaster walls and ceilings. For- 
merly, paperhanging was done by the painters, but it 
is now coming to be recognized as a separate trade. 
Wood finishing is a special branch of the painter's 
trade. 

Plumbers 
The present emphasis on public health and the rapid 
rise of the science of sanitation have added impor- 
tance to the plumbing trade. A first-class plumber 
today requires as much technical training as any 
skilled worker in industry. He must understand the 
principles that govern the circulation and pressure of 
water, and the construction and operation of siphons, 
tanks, filters, etc. In gas-fitting he needs to know the 
nature of gases and the methods of distributing them. 
He has to be able to read blueprints, and must be 
handy in the use of the tools of his trade. He is the 
only man engaged in building work who is obliged 
to have a city license in Cleveland. Examinations 
have to be passed by the journeyman and the master 
plumber. The latter must also give bond. 

Plumbers begin their part of the work on the house 
by laying the supply pipes connecting with the city 

20 



water, and the waste and sewer pipes connecting 
with the street sewer. Later on they set in place the 
wash-bowls, bath-tubs, and toilets. The precise de- 
tails of their work are not defined for them in the 
specifications, as they are for practically all other 
workers. They have more latitude for the exercise 
of experience and judgment. They have to be pre- 
pared to meet unexpected emergencies with tested 
knowledge. This is even more important in repair 
work than in original work. 

Steam-fitters 
Large buildings are ordinarily heated by steam. 
Formerly plumbers installed the plant and system; 
today steam-fitting is a separate trade. In order to 
dry the building and get it ready for occupation, 
radiators are placed as soon as possible. The me- 
chanical work of the steam-fitter is similar to that of a 
plumber. Plumbing and steam-fitting are so much 
alike that to avoid jurisdictional disputes the unions 
by agreement have closely defined the kinds of work 
each trade may undertake. 



Inside Wiremen 
Today most dwelling houses and practically all 
office buildings are wired for electricity. The system 
is installed by an electrician or inside wireman whose 
job is to extend metal tubes throughout the house 
for the wires to which the lighting, heating, vacuum 
cleaning, and other electrical fixtures are later at- 

21 



tached. A wireman must be able to read blueprints 
in order to determine the exact location for tubes. 
He must also have some technical knowledge of the 
simple elements of electricity and magnetism so that 
he will understand conductors, insulators, circuits, 
currents, connections, and systems of distribution. 



Lathers and Plasterers 
Stucco houses are very popular today. As soon as 
the carpenters are done with the rough outside board- 
ing of an ordinary frame house, lathers may begin to 
put on wood or metal laths. Then comes the plasterer 
with his trowel and float to apply the cement. It is 
much the same with interior lathing and plastering, 
which can be started as soon as the plumber and 
electrician have finished. Two or three coats are 
usually applied. Decorative or ornamental plaster- 
ing requires some technical knowledge and much 
skill. An allied trade is that of the cement finisher, 
whose work consists of laying and smoothing cement 
floors, sidewalks, etc. 



Sheet Metal Workers 
The modern tinsmith, now called a sheet metal 
worker, puts on the tin or iron roof; or else the strips 
of tin, zinc, or copper around the chimneys and in 
the valleys, if the roof is shingled. He makes and 
puts in place the gutters and spouts. He builds and 
sets the skylights, the metal sash, fire doors, and 

22 



molding. A good deal of this work is done in the shop 
and then later set in place. Intricate joints can not 
be made by rule of thumb methods. Ability to read 
and work with blueprint drawings is essential. 



Structural Iron Workers 
The earthquake of San Francisco shocked not only 
the city by the sea, but the civilized world. When 
the convulsions subsided and the fires died out, our 
attention was called to the striking fact that the 
huge fireproof, steel-frame buildings remained erect 
and defiant. Many weeks are often spent far below 
the street level, laying the foundations for these 
great buildings, used for hotels, department stores, 
offices, and apartments. Meanwhile the steel rolling 
mills have been making the frame for the lower 
stories, each beam and brace carefully marked for 
its exact place. Then the structural iron worker 
begins to erect the steel frame to which the walls and 
finish are fastened. The outer walls are usually of 
stone or terra cotta, although they may be built of 
brick or concrete. The interior partitions are usually 
constructed of fire brick. Wood is being displaced 
by metal for everything — even furniture. The occu- 
pation of the structural iron worker is never lacking 
in thrills. It calls for daring and steady nerves and 
the sort of skill that enables one to walk around, 
assembling and bolting parts, on the narrow beams 
of the tenth story of a rising skyscraper. The orna- 
mental iron worker also is primarily an assembler. 

23 



His work consists of the erection of stairways, balus- 
trades, elevator enclosures, balconies, iron window 
guards, fancy gates, and so on. 



Hoisting Engineers 
The erection of such buildings as we have just de- 
scribed would be next to impossible without the help 
of the heavy boom derrick and the hoisting engineer. 
By means of these derricks, operated with steam 
engines, brick, mortar, and the iron parts may be 
carried to any quarter of the various floors. The sta- 
tionary engineer must exercise great care in respond- 
ing immediately to signals. In Cleveland he is ex- 
empted from the usual examination required of other 
steam engineers, but in many of the other large 
cities of the country hoisting engineers are obliged 
to hold licenses. 

Other Trades 
Besides the building trades that have been men- 
tioned, there are several others that are important 
although not engaging the services of such large 
numbers of workers. Among these are stone masons, 
marble setters, and tile layers. The work in these 
trades is closely allied to bricklaying. Stone cutting, 
formerly important, is fast becoming a machine oper- 
ating trade. Cabinet-making, machine woodworking, 
constructing elevators, laying slate, tile and composi- 
tion roofs, and placing asbestos also engage other 
groups of special workers. 

24 



Repair Work 
A considerable proportion of building work is con- 
nected with the alteration and repair of old buildings. 
This was brought out in Table 1 on page 15. Repair- 
ing is so important a part of the work of the men in 
some trades that the outsider is apt to think of them 
only as repairmen and to fail to connect them with 
new construction. This is particularly true of the 
plumbing trade. Besides this kind of repair work, 
which is distributed generally throughout the trades, 
large manufacturing concerns also employ regularly 
during the year a considerable number of carpenters, 
bricklayers, steam-fitters, and painters to keep their 
plants in repair. 

Changing Character of the Work 
Much of the skilled labor of today is mere assembling. 
We have left behind us the age of individual crafts- 
manship, when all artisans exercised the creative 
faculty throughout every phase of production. And 
now we are rapidly moving away from a time when 
all factories really manufacture. Many automobile 
factories, for example, buy the parts of their cars 
from outside concerns. Their own work is Umited 
to assembling the various parts. The same trend is 
increasingly evident in the building industry. Much 
of the shaping of materials, formerly done by car- 
penters on the job, is now done on machines in the 
mill. This change is particularly noticeable with re- 
spect to interior work, where the trim is all shaped 

25 



and cut to size, so that when it reaches the job the 
carpenter has only to fasten it in place. Lathing, 
hardwood floor laying, structural iron work, and to 
a considerable degree, plumbing, steam-fitting, and 
electrical wiring are assembling trades. The same 
tendency in the division of labor is noticeable in the 
other building trades. 

Several factors influence and determine the various 
changes in the character of the work in the building 
trades, as in all others — among them the introduc- 
tion of new materials, new processes, and new ma- 
chines. This has been called an age of concrete. 
Cement is now used in place of wood for many 
purposes. Instead of causing a reduction in the de- 
mand for carpenters, as might be expected, this has, 
quite on the contrary, accelerated construction and 
increased the demand. It has, however, lowered the 
general standard of the carpenter's trade. Twenty 
years ago all carpenters needed a complete knowl- 
edge of framing, and also ability to do interior work; 
today a considerable proportion are employed on 
form work in concrete construction, where strength 
and moderate skill in the use of hammer, saw, and 
rule are all that is required. 

Specialization, through the increased use of ma- 
chinery, is responsible for changed conditions in the 
cabinet-maker's trade. Formerly all cabinet-making 
was done by hand ; now most of the parts are made 
by machine woodworkers, while the cabinet-makers, 
or bench hands, as they are called today, simply 
assemble and fasten them together. Much the same 

26 



thing is true of the sheet metal worker, the plumber, 
and the steam-fitter. Due to these changes a good 
deal of the work that was rich in interest and called 
for considerable skill two decades ago has now be- 
come monotonous and mechanical. 



Summary 
1. In colonial times and in the days of the pioneers, 
practically all structures were built of wood. 

2. The rapid increase in population, and the ten- 
dency to settle in cities, called for tall buildings in 
order to house more people on less area. This neces- 
sitated the substitution of steel and concrete for 
wood in their construction to make them fireproof. 

3. In 25 years, from 1890 to 1914, new building 
operations in Cleveland increased in cost from 
$4,327,405 to $23,595,960. Two-thirds of the former 
amount, but only one-third of the latter, was for 
buildings of wood construction. 

4. One-third of the total amount spent for all 
building operations in 1914 was for frame dwellings 
and one-ninth for alterations and repairs. 

5. The erection of most modern buildings is a 
very complex operation, involving the employment of 
from 10 to 20 different groups of workers. 

6. In an earlier age, the artisan made an article 
from start to finish. Such craftsmanship is now 
practically extinct. Today a great deal of the work 
in connection with building is not done on the job, 
but is performed in factories. As a result of this, 

27 



much of the skilled labor in building has become 
mere assembling. This trend is increasingly evident. 
7. New materials, new processes, and new ma- 
chines are among the factors that influence and de- 
termine the various changes in the character of the 
work. Due to these changes, many trades that 
formerly were rich in interest and called for con- 
siderable skill have now become monotonous and 
mechanical. 



28 



CHAPTER II 

NUMBER IN THE TRADES AND SOURCES 
OF SUPPLY 

Wherever civilized people live, they build dwellings 
to house themselves, and wherever they engage in 
manufacture and commerce, they must have fac- 
tories, office buildings, and stores. As a result, the 
proportion of men engaged in building in different 
cities is about the same. This means that if a boy 
learns any of the building trades he can find work 
anywhere in the country; that is, his field of employ- 
ment is not limited to a restricted territory, as is the 
case in highly localized occupations. There are local 
trades, just as there are local customs. One of the 
printing trades is a case in point. Lithographic poster 
artists are found in few cities of the country outside 
of Cleveland, where one-third of all the men em- 
ployed in this trade are located. 



Number in the Trades 
A careful estimate places the number of men engaged 
in building in Cleveland at the present time at about 
30,000, comprising more than one-fifth of the total 

29 



in manufacturing and mechanical occupations. 
Building ranks next to the metal industries in num- 
ber employed. Table 2 shows an estimate of the 
number in the various trades in 1915. This table is 
based on the United States Census figures for 1900 
and 1910 and the estimated population figures for 
1915. The difference between the estimate of 30,000 
men engaged in building in Cleveland and the 
figures of Table 2 is largely to be accounted for by 
the fact that the table includes no estimate of the 
unskilled laborers engaged in this work. 



TABLE 2. 



-ESTIMATED NUMBER OF MEN ENGAGED IN BUILD- 
ING TRADES IN CLEVELAND, 1915 



Workers in trade 


Number employed 


Carpenters 


7,105 


Painters, glaziers, varnishers 


2,746 


Plumbers, gas- and steam-fitters 


2,014 


Bricklayers 


1,800 


Machine woodworkers 


1,198 


Sheet metal workers or tinsmiths 


1,069 


Cabinet-makers 


895 


Inside wiremen and fixture hangers 


750 


Plasterers 


638 


Paperhangers 


379 


Structural iron workers 


356 


Roofers and slaters 


315 


Stone-cutters 


292 


Lathers 


275 


Stone masons and marble setters 


250 


Ornamental iron workers 


200 


Cement finishers 


200 


Hoisting engineers 


150 


Elevator constructors 


100 


Parquet floor layers 


100 


Tile-layers 


100 


Asbestos workers 


75 


Wood carvers 


63 


Helpers 


926 


Apprentices 


306 


Total 


22,302 



30 



There are three times as many men in the carpenters' 
trade as in any other building trade. Next in point 
of numbers come painters, bricklayers, and plumbers. 
The number employed is increasing in practically 
all the building trades. In some the rate of increase 
is greater than that of the general population; in 
others it lags behind. Two trades — stone-cutting 
and paperhanging — showed decreases from 1900 to 



(Plasterers |80£ increase 


1 




| Plumbers, gas and steam fitters |60jt increase 


1 






| Carpenters J 52$ increase 








j Population of Cleveland JU756 increase 








(Brick and stone masons [k^fi increase | 








| Painters, glaziers, varnishers |3(# • j 








| Cabinetmakers \2J)L " J 








|Paperhangere J9^ decrease 








| Stonecutters 1 19$ decrease 





Diagram 2. — Percentage of increase or decrease from 1900 to 
1910 in workers in building trades and in the population of 
Cleveland 



1910. The introduction of new machinery undoubt- 
edly explains this in the case of the stone-cutter; 
the substitution of paint for wallpaper accounts for 
the decline of the paperhangers' trade. 

The relative increase from 1900 to 1910 in each of 
the several trades compared with that of the total 
population is shown in Diagram 2. 

31 



Many Workers Come from Abroad 
The building trades get their workers from four 
principal sources: immigration, native journeymen 
from outside the city, helpers, and apprentices. 
Immigration contributes the largest proportion in 
both skilled and unskilled work, practically monopo- 
lizing the latter. Unskilled workers are mostly of 
the "new immigration" from southern and south- 
eastern Europe; while skilled workers are of the "old 
immigration" from northern Europe. Diagram 3 
shows the proportion of men employed in each trade 
in 1910 that were foreign born, native born of foreign 
parents, and native born of native parents. Over 
four-fifths of all cabinet-makers, more than two- 
thirds of all brick and stone masons, and nearly 
two-thirds of all carpenters are foreign born. Plum- 
bers and steam-fitters show the smallest proportion 
of foreign born — less than one-third. A very con- 
siderable proportion of the native born are of foreign 
stock. 



TABLE 3.— PERCENTAGE OF WORKERS IN FOUR BUILDING 
TRADES IN 1900 AND 1910 THAT WERE FOREIGN BORN 



Workers in trade 


1900 


1910 


Cabinet makers 

Carpenters 

Brick and stone masons 

Plumbers and gas- and steam-fitters 


75 
56 

68 
28 


85 
61 
67 
32 



The trend in four trades is indicated in Table 3, 
which gives the proportion of foreign born workers 

32 



in 1900 and 1910. Reference to the table reveals 
the fact that cabinet-making showed the greatest 
relative increase in the number of foreign born. 



Cabinetmakers 




Builders and building contractors 
Pain ters and glaziers 
Sheet metal workers and tinsmiths 
Plumbers, gas and steam fitters 



23 



Foreign] 
born 



Native born of i 
foreign parents! 



Native bom of 
native parents 



□ 



Diagram 3. — Percentage of workers in building trades that are 
foreign born, native born of foreign parents, and native born 
of native parents 



33 



Wokkers Drawn from Neighboring Towns 
The smaller surrounding cities and towns furnish 
many workers for the building industry in Cleveland. 
They are attracted here by the comparatively high 
wages. Some of these men are not highly skilled 
workmen, but the requirements as to skill exacted 
for admission to most of the unions are not so high 
but that men with country training who come to the 
city usually manage to meet them. The building 
trades are strongly organized and membership in 
the union is considered sufficient evidence that a 
man knows his trade. Some unions provide special 
training for those of their members who are unable 
at once to measure up to Cleveland standards. 

Helpers 
In some trades — among them those of the structural 
iron workers and steam-fitters — the unions recognize 
helpers as apprentices. Carpenters, painters, and a 
few others increase their supply of journeymen by 
advancing helpers and even laborers after a longer 
or shorter period of undirected training. A man gets 
a job as a laborer or helper and, after working in this 
capacity until fairly familiar with the trade, quits 
and looks for a new job, claiming that he is a skilled 
worker. He may not be able to satisfy the require- 
ments of his new employer, but he will undoubtedly 
stay with him long enough to learn a little more about 
the work. By repeating this process several times he 
will finally learn enough so that he can hold a journey- 

34 



man's job. Learning a trade in this fashion is not so 
common now as it was before the trades became so 
highly unionized. Helpers and laborers are, by union 
rules, forbidden the use of journeyman's tools. This, 
of course, prevents the easy acquisition of the trade. 
Opportunities for helpers to " pick-up" a trade are 
found most readily in the smaller non-union concerns 
of the city, which are engaged almost entirely in re- 
pair work. They have contributed a large share of 
the men to the different trades, and their contribu- 
tion will probably continue to be large. 



Apprentices 
A considerable number of the men learn their trades 
as apprentices. The general decline of the apprentice- 
ship system, which began with the invention of 
modern labor-saving machinery, has affected the 
building trades least of all. Here it survives in an 
active state and is steadily gaining ground. It is in 
favor with many employers and with all unions. The 
best apprenticeship systems are found in the strongly 
organized trades. 

It is true that in some trades apprenticeship is 
little more than a name, meaning simply that per- 
mission has been granted to learn the trade. The 
apprentice is left free to pick up what experience he 
can between the odd jobs that are given him. What 
meager instruction he receives comes from a journey- 
man worker who is none too anxious to give up what 
he considers the secrets of his trade. The employer 
35 



in most cases is too much engrossed in his business 
to devote much time to the training of apprentices. 
The law forbids boys under 16 to work on scaffolds 
or do any heavy work in connection with building 
The union regulations provide that boys shall not 
enter the trades as apprentices or helpers below this 
age. The limits set by the various trades are shown 
in Table 4. 

TABLE 4.— UNION REGULATIONS AS TO ENTERING AGE OF 
APPRENTICES IN CLEVELAND 



Asbestos workers 




Enter at any age 


Bricklayers 




Between 16 and 23 


Carpenters 




Between 17 and 22 


Cement finishers 




Must be full grown 


Elevator constructors 




Must be full grown 


Inside wiremen 




Must be 18 years old 


Lathers 




Between 16 and 21 


Painters and paperhangers 




Before 21 years old 


Plasterers 




Between 16 and 18 


Plumbers and gas-fitters 




Must be 16 years old 


Sheet metal workers 




Must be over 16 years 


Slate and tile roofers 




Must enter before 25 


Steam-fitters 




Must be full grown 


Structural and ornamental iron 


workers 


Between 18 and 25 



TABLE 5.— UNION REGULATIONS AS TO LENGTH OF APPREN- 
TICESHIP PERIOD IN CLEVELAND 

Trades in Which Indentures are Usually Signed 

Bricklayers 4 years 

Plasterers 4 years 

Sheet metal workers 4 years 

Trades in Which Indentures are Seldom Signed 

Steam-fitters 5 years 

Carpenters 4 years 

Inside wiremen 4 years 

Plumbers and gas-fitters 4 years 

Cement finishers 3 years 

Asbestos workers 3 years 

Painters and paperhangers 3 years 

Slate and tile roofers 3 years 

Lathers 2 years 

Structural and ornamental iron workers 1 ^ years 

Elevator constructors varies 

36 



The length of the apprenticeship period in the 
principal trades, which varies from two to five years, 
is set forth in Table 5. 

Apprenticeship in those trades in which it is cus- 
tomary to sign indentures closely resembles the type 
formerly common in this country. This apprentice- 
ship is characterized by a closer relationship between 
apprentice and employer than is usual in the other 
trades. On p. 38 is a typical form of indenture. 

Varying conditions surround apprenticehsip in 
those trades in which it is not customary to sign 
indentures. In some of them much care is exercised 
in training apprentices. The burden of this training, 
however, is being shifted from the employer to the 
union. In many trades the apprenticeship system is 
nothing more than a means for limiting the supply of 
workers. The apprentices are mature men who have 
to serve as helpers for two or three years before they 
are admitted to the union as journeymen. Examina- 
tions are exacted by some of the unions to determine 
the competence of prospective journeymen. 

Besides requiring the learners to serve a minimum 
apprenticeship period, unions limit the number that 
any firm may employ. The unions assert that to keep 
wages up to present standards they must prevent an 
oversupply of workers, and to do this they rely on 
the apprenticeship system. Table 6 shows some of 
the limitations established by the unions. When 
the number of journeymen in a single shop rises, the 
proportion of apprentices allowed changes, and in 



37 



Form of Apprenticeship Contract 

This Indenture, made this day of A. D. 

19 ... . Witnesseth that of 

in the County of and State of now 

the age of years, with the consent of 

his hereon endorsed, does hereby, of his 

own free will, bind himself to serve of 

in the County of 

and State of an apprentice to said 

in the art or trade of masonry; 

to learn the art or trade and to continue with and serve said 

for the term of four 

years, to wit; from the date hereof until 

day of A. D. 19. . . . during all of which 

time the said apprentice shall 

serve his employer faithfully and honestly, and obey his lawful 
directions connected with said trade; he will not engage in said 
art or trade on his own account during the term of his appren- 
ticeship, and will remain faithfully in the employ of said mas- 
ter for the purpose herein mentioned, unless sick or unable to 
work. 

Said apprentice shall attend a technical night school for one 
year during his apprenticeship. 

The said master, agrees to keep said 

apprentice employed during 

the entire building season, and whenever said employer has 
work, and use the utmost of his endeavors to teach or cause 
the said apprentice to be taught and instructed in the art and 

trade mentioned in this indenture, in 

all its branches, during his apprenticeship and shall advance 
him in the work of said art and trade, that he may thoroughly 
develop to be an efficient workman therein. 

Said Master agrees to keep him in his employ, and not 
transfer him to any other employer during his term of appren- 
ticeship, and will pay him for his services as follows: First 

year Second year Third 

year Fourth year 

In Witness Whereof, the parties aforesaid hereunto set 
their hands and seals, the day and year first above written. 

Signed and sealed in the presence of 

(Seal) 

(Seal) 

I, the undersigned (parent or guardian), hereby consent to 

the binding of and approve of the 

purposes, terms and conditions named in the foregoing in- 
denture. 

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and 
seal this day of A. D. 19. . 

Signed in the presence of 
(Seal) 

38 



most cases there is a definite limit as to the number 
which may be employed. 

TABLE 6.— NUMBER OF APPRENTICES OR HELPERS ALLOWED 
IN VARIOUS BUILDING TRADES 



Trade 


Number of apprentices 


Asbestos workers 




Varies 


Bricklayers 




2 for one contractor 


Carpenters 




1 for eight journeymen 


Cement finishers 




Varies 


Elevator constructors 




1 for one journeyman 


Inside wiremen 




1 for four journeymen 


Lathers 




1 for 20 journeymen 


Painters and paperhangers 




1 for 10 journeymen 


Plasterers 




2 for one contractor 


Plumber and gas-fitters 




1 for three journeymen 


Sheet metal workers 




1 for three journeymen 


Slate and tile roofera 




Varies 


Steam-fitters 




1 for one journeyman 


Structural and ornamental iron 


workers 


1 for seven journeymen 



All obtainable information points to the conclusion 
that the number of apprentices employed in the city 
is far below the maximum permitted by the unions. 
Many large contractors have no apprentices and 
say they will not bother with them. Others state 
that they have been unable to get good apprentices 
or to keep them when they found them, and have 
therefore given up the plan. 

Summary 
1. There are about 30,000 men engaged in the build- 
ing industry in Cleveland at the present time. 
Nearly two-thirds of them are in the skilled trades. 

2. The journeymen in the industry come either 
from abroad, or from outside the city, or else they 
advance from jobs as helpers or apprentices. 

3. Immigration contributes the largest proportion 

39 



of both skilled and unskilled workers. Most of the 
skilled workers are of the "old immigration" from 
northern Europe, while nearly all the unskilled 
workers are of the "new immigration" from southern 
Europe. The proportion of foreign born in most of 
the principal trades is steadily increasing. About 
two-thirds of the carpenters are foreign born. 

4. A large number of building workers come from 
surrounding towns, attracted by high wages. 

5. Many who are now regular journeymen were 
formerly helpers. In some trades the unions recognize 
helpers as apprentices. Small non-union concerns, 
engaged almost entirely in repair work, offer the best 
opportunities for advancement to the journeyman 
class. 

6. A considerable number of beginners receive 
preliminary training as apprentices. The general 
decline of the apprenticeship system, which began 
with the invention of modern labor-saving machinery, 
has affected the building trades least of all. The most 
complete apprenticeship systems are found in the 
most strongly organized trades. The unions do not 
permit boys to enter the trades as apprentices before 
they are 16 years old; a state law forbids them to 
work on scaffolds under this age. The length of the 
apprenticeship period varies from two to five years 
in the several trades. The burden of training ap- 
prentices is shifting from the employer to the unions. 
For the purpose of keeping down the supply of 
workers the unions limit the number of apprentices 
a contractor may have in his employ. 

40 



CHAPTER III 

CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

The building trades are among the most strongly 
organized in the city. It is estimated that their 
unions at the present time include about 90 per cent 
of all the men engaged in building work. Practically 
all the large contracting firms employ only union 
men. Non-union workers are usually employed by 
small contractors. 

The strength of the unions in the building trades 
can be accounted for in several ways. Probably the 
chief reason is that building contractors have resisted 
union organization among their workmen less than 
most employers, for, unlike manufacturers of goods 
which must compete in outside markets, they can 
immediately pass the extra cost involved in wage 
increases on to the owner or buyer. As the product 
is one that is locally produced and used, and as it 
is also immediately disposed of, the contractor can 
adjust his selling price to the wages he must pay more 
quickly than can the manufacturer of articles for 
general consumption throughout the country or 
abroad. Since the unions are strong enough to en- 
force uniform rates of pay, thus equalizing the con- 
ditions of competition for all contractors, there is 

41 



little opposition to organization on the part of the 
employers. 

The unions and the contractor usually work to- 
gether under a mutual agreement, either oral or 
written, which governs wages, hours of labor, and 
apprenticeship regulations. The following classifica- 
tion, based on statements of employers and union 
officials, shows the relative strength of union organ- 
ization in the various trades: 

Well Organized 

Bricklayers 

Cement finishers 

Inside wiremen or electricians 

Plasterers 

Plumbers 

Sheet metal workers 

Steam-fitters 

Stone-cutters 

Stone masons 

Structural iron workers 
Fairly Well Organized 

Carpenters 

Painters and paperhangers 

Tile layers 
Poorly Organized 

Building laborers 

Cabinet-makers 

Machine woodworkers 

Requirements for admission to the different unions 
vary to a marked degree, the condition of the union 
and the supply of workers determining these require- 
ments to some extent. If the union is strong and has 
a good control over the situation, admission fees are 

42 



higher and regulations as to apprentices and helpers 
are more stringent than if the union is fighting to 
gain a foothold. 

One of the important results of this strong union 
organization in the building trades has been the 
establishment and maintenance of good wages. 
Another result is the determination of the work that 
a man may do in a given trade. From time to time, 
as new materials have been introduced, controversies, 
or jurisdictional disputes, as they are called, have 
arisen between the different trades. For example, 
though the increased use of metal trim there de- 
veloped a dispute between the sheet metal workers 
and the carpenters as to which should place it. The 
American Federation of Labor at its last meeting in 
San Francisco awarded this work to the carpenters. 

Still another result of union organization has been 
to transfer to the workmen of certain trades various 
kinds of work formerly done by common laborers. 
One of the most striking examples is found in the 
placing of steel used in reinforcing concrete. Until 
1914 this was commonly done by laborers. At that 
time the structural iron workers were able to force 
employers to grant them this work. Now laborers 
can be employed only on the loading and unloading 
of the steel. It must be set in place in the forms by 
structural iron workers. 

Earnings 
No industrial workers in the city are paid better 
wages than those employed in the building trades. 

43 



The diagam below shows that the proportion of 
men earning $25 a week or over in building work is 
nearly a third larger than in clothing factories, twice 
that in automobile factories, and more than seven 
times the proportion employed in foundries and 
machine shops. One-half of the total number em- 



Printing and publishing 
ft 




Clothing f aotories 

Automobile factories 
53 




Under $18 



$18 to $25 

Ezzzzzzzza 



$23 or over 
l l 



Diagram 4. — Percentage of men employed in building con- 
struction and in four other industries earning less than $18 
per week, from $18 to $25 per week, and $25 or over per week 



ployed earn over $18 per week. This is a much better 
showing than is made by any of the other industries 
compared, with the single exception of printing and 
publishing. The high earnings in building are of 
even greater significance when it is remembered 

44 



that the men generally work a much shorter day than 
those in other industries. 

Plastering 



55 



Electrical contracting 



55 



Ventilating and heating 
53 



General cont r acting 

Sheet metal work 
S3 




Painting and decorating 




Diagram 5 —Percentage of men in each of eight building in- 
dustries earning less than $18 per week, from $18 to $25 per 
week, and $25 or over per week 

A comparison of earnings in the various branches 
of building work is shown in Diagram 5. The largest 

45 



proportion earning $18 a week and over is found in 
electrical contracting, and the smallest in brick, 
stone and cement work and sheet metal work. In 
brick, stone and cement work 58 per cent of the whole 
number earn less than $18 per week. This is due 
mainly to the large number of laborers employed. 



Rates of Pay 
So far we have considered the actual earnings of all 
the men employed. No attempt has been made to 
distinguish between the different trades or between 
skilled and unskilled workmen. Now we come to a 
consideration of the wage rates paid men in the vari- 
ous trades. They are strongly unionized and there- 
fore the union scale of hourly wage rates shown in 
Table 7 is fairly representative. 

The wages of foremen are not included in this 
table. In most of the trades they are paid about 50 
cents a day more than journeymen, while in others, 
like plumbing, where the working force on a given 
job is small, the man in charge does not usually re- 
ceive extra pay. His additional compensation takes 
the form of steadier employment. 

More than one-half of the building workers in 
Cleveland are in trades that pay an hourly wage of 
50 cents or over. The highest paid men, receiving 
70 cents an hour, are bricklayers, boom derrick 
hoisting engineers, stone masons, and structural iron 
workers. The only skilled workmen who receive under 
40 cents an hour are cabinet-makers. 

46 



TABLE 7.— UNION SCALE OF WAGES IN CENTS PER HOUR IN 
THE BUILDING TRADES, MAY 1, 1915 

70 Cents 

Bricklayers . 70.00 

Hoisting engineers on boom derricks, etc 70.00 

Stone masons 70.00 

Structural iron workers 70.00 

From 60 to 70 Cents 

Marble setters 68.75 

Inside wiremen 68.75 

Plasterers 68.75 

Slate and tile roofers 67.50 

Parquet floor layers (carpenters) 62.50 

Lathers, first class 62.50 

Plumbers 62.50 

Steam-fitters 62.50 

Stone-cutters 62.50 

Hoisting engineers, brickhoists 60.00 

Elevator constructors 60.00 

From 50 to 60 Cents 

Tile layers 59.38 

Lathers, second class 56.25 

Carpenters 55.00 

Cement workers, finishers 55.00 

Sheet metal workers 50.00 

Painters 50.00 

Paperhangers 50.00 

From 40 to 50 Cents 

Asbestos workers 47.50 

Composition roofers 42.50 

Under 40 Cents 

Cabinet-makers and bench hands 37.50 

Machine woodworkers 37.50 

Electrical fixture hangers 37.50 

Hod-carriers 35.00 

An analysis shows that skill is not the chief factor 
in determining wages in these trades. The trades in 
the highest wage group shown in the table require 
only a small amount of technical knowledge. The 
factor which contributes most largely to securing 

47 



and maintaining high wages is the strong union or- 
ganization. Wages are also influenced by irregularity 
of employment and the amount of hazard connected 
with the work. 

A high degree of skill in a given trade brings little 
advantage in the matter of wages. By establishing 
a minimum scale below which no journeyman shall 
work the union practically sets a flat rate of pay for 
most of the men in the trade. For example, by agree- 
ment between the union and the contractors, car- 
penters' wages are fixed at 55 cents an hour. This 
means that the carpenter who does exceptionally 
good interior work, requiring the skilful use of a num- 
ber of hand tools, earns no more than the carpenter 
who makes rough board forms for concrete with no 
other tools than a hammer and saw. The skilled 
worker's reward comes only rarely in increased wages. 
If he can manage men well he may in time become a 
foreman. When there is much building work and 
good men are scarce, contractors sometimes pay 
higher wages to skilled workmen in order to secure 
their services. As a rule, however, their reward 
comes in the form of steadier employment. The less 
skilled man is the first to be laid off when business 
is slack, while the first-class workman, for the 
reason that he is so hard to replace, is the last to be 
discharged. 

In those building trades where the work is indoors 
and where it is the steadiest, we find the lowest 
wages. This is well shown in the case of cabinet- 
makers, most of whom are as highly skilled as 

48 



carpenters, and if on outside work would undoubtedly 
earn carpenters' wages. But in order to be employed 
inside on fairly steady work and to live near their 
jobs, they are willing to work for about 20 cents less 
an hour and to work two more hours a day. The same 
thing is true of men who work in the maintenance 
departments of factories and mills. Their wages are 
lower and the hours longer than in construction work 
in the same trades. It should be added, however, 
that as a rule the work they do does not require as 
much skill. They are not members of a union. A 
comparison of hourly wages paid for indoor work, 
and outdoor work, is presented in Table 8. When 



TABLE 8.— HOURLY RATES FOR CONSTRUCTION AND MAIN 
TENANCE WORK IN CENTS PER HOUR 



Workers in trade 


Union scale in 
construction work 


Usual wages in 
maintenance work 


Bricklayers 

Steam-fitters 

Carpenters 

Sheet metal workers 

Painters 


70.0 
62.5 
55.0 
50.0 
50.0 


44.5 
30.0 
31.0 
33.0 
33.6 



we compare the hourly wages of workers in the 
building trades with the wages of men in other in- 
dustrial occupations, we find that the former are 
among the highest paid in industry. The usual 
hourly wages in the five largest trades outside of the 
building industry are shown in Table 9 on page 50. 
The hourly rate for compositors is the only one that 
approaches those received in the majority of the 
building trades. 

4 49 



TABLE 9.— USUAL HOURLY WAGES OF FIVE LARGEST BUILD- 
ING TRADES AND FIVE LARGEST OTHER TRADES 



Workers in trade 


Cents per hour 


Bricklayers 


70.00 


Plumbers, gas- and steam -fitters 


68.75 


Carpenters 


55.00 


Hand compositors and linotypers 


41.67 to 53.75 


Bakers 


24.07 to 52.08 


Painters 


50.00 


Sheet metal workers 


50.00 


Blacksmiths 


44.44 


Molders 


38.89 


Machinists 


35.00 



Wages in Cleveland compare favorably with those 
in other large cities of the country. The table 
below, compiled from data issued by the Builders' 
Association of Chicago, gives the hourly rates of 
wages paid in the five leading building trades in 16 
large cities. 



TABLE 10.— MAXIMUM HOURLY RATE OF WAGES OF WORKERS 

IN THE FIVE PRINCIPAL BUILDING TRADES IN 16 

LARGE CITIES, JULY, 1915 



City 


Brick- 


Carpen- 


Painters 


Plumbers 


Sheet 
metal 




layers 


ters 






workers 


Baltimore 


.70 


.43% 


•37H 


.50 


.40 


Boston 


.65 


.57 


.55 


.65 


.55 


Buffalo 


.65 


.50 


A6V 8 


.56% 


.50 


Cincinnati 


.70 


.60 


.55 


.62^ 
.68# 


.47% 


Cleveland 


.70 


.55 


.50 


.50 


Detroit 


.70 


.50 


.50 


.60 


.50 


Indianapolis 


.75 


.55 


.50 


' 6 2H 


.55 


Kansas City 


.75 


.65 


.60 


.68% 


.62** 


Milwaukee 


•67H 


.50 


.50 


.62J^ 


.50 


Minneapolis 


.70 


.50 


.50 


MX 


.45 


New Orleans 


.62^ 


.45 


.40 


.56% 


.45 


Pittsburgh 


.70 


•62H 


•58H 


mi 


•57% 


San Francisco 


.87X 


•62J4 


.62^ 


.75 


.68% 


Seattle 


.75 


.56% 


.56% 


.75 


.56% 


St. Louis 


.70 


•62^ 


.62^ 


.75 


.60 


Washington 


.66H 


.55 


.50 


.56% 


.50 



50 



During the past few years wages in these trades have 
been steadily rising. Table 11 offers a comparison, 
based on union rates, of the hourly wages paid in 
1907 and 1915. 



TABLE 11.— UNION WAGE RATES IN 1907 AND 1915 IN PRINCI- 
PAL BUILDING TRADES IN CLEVELAND 



Workers in trade 


1907 


1915 


Bricklayers 


.60 


.70 


Structural iron workers 


.60 


.70 


Plasterers 


.56% 


.68% 


Marble setters 


.50 


.68% 


Steam-fitters 


.50 


.62^ 


Stone masons 


.50 


.70 


Carpenters 


.45 


.55 


Inside wiremen 


.45 


.68% 


Painters 


.40 


.50 


Sheet metal workers 


•37^ 


.50 



Exact information is not obtainable, but data which 
will help in determining how much building workers 
make per year are found in the report of the Ohio 
Industrial Commission published in 1915 and giving 
data for 1914. Using its unemployment figures, and 
simply taking into account time lost through actually 
being off the payroll (without considering either 
overtime or part time), an estimate of average yearly 
earnings in the five largest building trades and in the 
five largest trades not engaged in building, is shown 
in Table 12 on page 52. 

Many unions — among them those of the carpenters, 
bricklayers, and painters — make no provision as to 
wages of apprentices. They are chiefly interested in 
having the learners serve the full apprenticeship 

51 



period. His future wage as a journeyman gives them 
more concern than his present wage as an apprentice. 
Table 13 shows the wages in three of the building 
trades that have established a uniform scale for 
apprentices. Sheet metal apprentices are paid a 
bonus of $1.00 extra for each week served. 

TABLE 12.— ESTIMATED AVERAGE YEARLY EARNINGS IN THE 

FIVE LARGEST BUILDING TRADES AND THE FIVE LARGEST 

OTHER TRADES IN CLEVELAND 



Workers in trade 


Yearly earnings 


Plumbers 


$1223 


Bricklayers 


1191 


Blacksmiths 


1059 


Compositors and linotypers 


1038 


Sheet metal workers 


1030 


Molders 


1022 


Carpenters 


969 


Machinists 


920 


Bakers 


917 


Painters 


830 



TABLE 13.— USUAL WEEKLY WAGES OF APPRENTICES IN 
THREE BUILDING TRADES IN CLEVELAND 



Year 


Inside wiremen 


Plasterers 


Sheet metal 
workers 


First year 
Second year 
Third year 
Fourth year 


$5.50 
13.20 
17.60 
22.00 


$5.50 to $6.25 

8.25 to 11.02 

13.75 to 16.00 

19.25 


$5.00 
5.50 to 6.00 
6.50 to 7.00 
8.00 to 9.00 



In another group of trades, helpers are officially 
recognized by the unions. They correspond to the 
apprentices in the trades above mentioned, but must 
be adults or at least capable of doing a man's work. 
They are paid higher wages than apprentices. The 
union scale of wages for helpers is given in Table 14 
on page 53. 

52 



TABLE 14.— UNION SCALE OF HOURLY RATES FOR HELPERS 
IN SIX BUILDING TRADES 



Trade 


Rate per hour 


Structural iron work 
Elevator construction 
Slate and tile roofing 
Cement finishing 
Steam-fitting 
Tile laying 


40.00 
40.00 
37.50 
35.00 
31.25 
31.25 



Hours 
Eighty per cent of the contracting firms in Cuya- 
hoga County engaged in building report that their 
men work an eight-hour day — from eight in the morn- 
ing to four-thirty in the afternoon, with a half-hour 
for lunch. Only cabinet-makers, machine wood- 
workers, and general laborers work longer hours — 
usually nine. Many of the trades work only a half 
day on Saturday throughout the year; practically 
all have this half-holiday during the four summer 
months. For holiday or overtime work the men re- 
ceive either pay and a half or double pay. 

Regularity of Employment 
In common with other industries, building is affected 
by general business conditions. In addition, there 
are several other factors influencing employment, 
among them the seasons and the weather. The 
nature of building operations and the organization 
and manner of conducting the business tend further 
to affect regularity of employment. The workers in 

53 



many factory industries are engaged in manufactur- 
ing staple articles of standard shapes and sizes for 
which there is a fairly steady year-round demand. 
During slack seasons they can be employed in mak- 
ing an extra supply to meet the heavier demands of 
the busy season, thus enabling these industries to 
keep a regular force of men steadily employed. This 
condition does not prevail to any considerable ex- 
tent in building work as there are but a few standard- 
ized houses, although standardized parts of houses, 
like windows and doors, are now quite common. 
The fact that these can be made and stored for future 
use is one of the reasons why employment in wood- 
working mills is steadier than in any of the outside 
building trades. This, however, accounts for only a 
small proportion of the workers in the entire industry. 
Each house is a special job. Even though some of the 
parts are factory made, the assembling has to be 
done where the house is permanently to stand. 
This prevents anticipating in any way the work of 
the busy season. The demand for a particular 
house at a particular time has developed, to a high 
degree, the "bid" system in the selling of building 
construction. Few contracts are made by any other 
method. 

Under these conditions, it is quite evident that it is 
next to impossible for a building contractor to keep a 
large force employed all the time. He can use men 
only when he has made successful bids. One result 
of this situation is that men in the building trades 
change employers more than any other workers in 

54 



industry. It requires the most careful management 
on the part of the contractor and his foremen to keep 
the job moving so that the frequent changes in the 
labor force due to the variety of work do not cause 
the men to lose time. Lack of material when needed 
also results in loss of time. 

As a consequence of all these conditions there is 
greater irregularity of employment in building trades 
than in any of the other leading industries. The 
report of the Ohio Industrial Commission contains 
information showing the changes from month to 
month during the year 1914 in the number employed 
in building work. The data given are for Cuyahoga 
County as a whole, but they are fairly typical for the 
city as nearly nine-tenths of the entire population of 
the county reside here. The year 1914 was marked 
by very hard times and so was not truly representa- 
tive, hence these figures cannot be taken as an abso- 
lute measure of the usual employment in the indus- 
tries reporting. But they are indicative of the rela- 
tive standing of the several industries in this respect. 

Diagram 6 on page 56 shows the fluctuation during 
1914 in the size of the working forces in the building 
industry and the printing industry. The number in 
each industry during the months of greatest employ- 
ment is represented by 100 per cent. Comparison 
is made with printing because the workmen in both 
industries are strongly organized and well paid. 

It will be observed that the smallest force employed 
by the building contractors was in February, when 
they had on their payrolls less than half the number 

55 



they had in September. Also in January, March, 
and December only about two-thirds as many men 
were at work as in September. In other words, out 
of every 100 men employed in September more than 
50 were either out of work, or were working outside 
of the county, or in a different industry during Feb- 



100 
90 

80 
70 
60 
50 

U0 

3o 

20 
10 



Diagram 6. — Percentage of men in the printing trades and in 
the building trades employed each month during the year. 
The largest number employed in any one month is taken as the 
base and is represented by 100 per cent 



Sep. 


Oct. 


Nov. 


Dee. 


Jan. 


Feb. 


Mar. 


Apr. 


May 


June 


July 


Aug. 














87 


loo 


ICO 


— 99- 


9« 




too ' 


"y?\ 


9/ 


*<L- 


95— 


JH> _ 








"1* 


9*i mmm 9A 


-**- 


= 52 = 












A. 


•-V 












t 


V 






/ 


t 


















"\ 




/* 




















i 


V 


t 






















h-t 













































































Building trades — — — — 

























ruary. The average working force throughout the 
year was about 80 per cent of that employed in 
September. 

If this situation is compared with that which exists 
in the printing industry, it will be noted that in 
December, when the smallest force was employed, 
they had on their payrolls 90 per cent of the number 

56 



they had in April which was the month of greatest 
employment. Less than 10 per cent of the men in 
the printing industry were out of work, or had to 
change employment some time during the year, as 
compared with 50 per cent in building. The average 
force employed in printing for the year was about 95 
per cent of the maximum, as against 80 per cent in 
building. 

Other figures in the report of the Industrial Com- 
mission tend to show that building workers do not 
enter other occupations during the winter months. 
The only industries open to them would be those 
which report a large working force for the months 
when building is quiet. The industries which reach 
their maximum during February, when most building 
workers are unemployed, are those manufacturing 
fancy and paper boxes, brass and bronze products, 
chemicals, acids and wood distillation, women's 
clothing, foundry and machine shop products, furni- 
ture, gas and electric fixtures, and shipbuilding. 
Even if we can imagine them undertaking the work, 
there is not room enough in all the industries for the 
building employees idle every winter. 

The relation between the smallest and the largest 
number employed in 1914 in the principal building 
industries is shown in Diagram 7 on page 58. Con- 
tractors say that plasterers, brick and stone masons, 
painters, carpenters, and cement workers, lose the 
most time, and their statements are confirmed by 
data from the Industrial Commission report. It is 
true that these data were not gathered for each trade 

57 



separately, but they do indicate the size of the work- 
ing force in the different kinds of building construc- 
tion. The report clearly shows that during the slack 



Electrical contracting 



87 



Lumbar and planing mills 



60 



Ventilating and heating 



75 



Plumbing and steam fitting 



68 



Sheet metal work and roofing 



50 



General contracting 



50 



Brick, stone and cement work 



U9 --al^lMM^j 


Painting and decorating 


H3 § n 


BKi ^f^^^M 


Plastering 


38 n i m 


iJ^^I^VB 



Diagram 7. — Sections in outline represent percentage of men 
employed and sections in black percentage of men unemployed 
in each of nine building industries at the time when each in- 
dustry showed the largest percentage of unemployment 

58 



season in 1914 firms engaged in general contracting, 
brick, stone, and cement work; sheet metal work; 
painting and decorating, and plastering, employed 
less than half as many men as during the busy season. 
In the case of the plasterers the proportion employed 
in the dull season fell to about one-third. Electrical 
contracting, in which less than 15 per cent were un- 
employed at any time during the year, showed the 
most stable working force. 

A better idea of the unemployment situation is 
obtained by considering the relation between the 
average and the largest working force. Such a com- 
parison is presented in Diagram 8. The best show- 
ing is made by electrical contracting in which the 
average number employed is 93 per cent of the maxi- 
mum working force, and the poorest, in plastering 
where the average is only 66 per cent of the maximum. 

New methods, such as the introduction of fires, 
tents, and canvas for winter work, have all tended to 
reduce the total amount of unemployment. Also, 
people are beginning to realize that it is more eco- 
nomical to get buildings started so that at least a 
part of the work can be carried over into the slack 
season. 

Health Conditions and Accident Risks 
On the whole, health conditions in building work are 
good. The worker is in the open air most of the time 
and even much of the inside work is necessarily done 
before the building is entirely closed in. Also, the 
very nature of the work requires continual activity. 

59 



For the most part the materials used are not injurious 
to health if reasonable precautions are taken and 
ordinary habits of cleanliness observed. 



Electrical contracting 



93 



Lumber and planing mills 



91 



Ventilating and heating 



88 



Plumbing and steam fitting 



86 



Sheet metal work and roofing 



*3 



General contracting 



77 



Painting and decorating 



Brick, stone and cement work 



72 



Plastering 



66 



D 



D 




Diagram 8. — Sections in outline represent average percentage 
of men employed and sections in black average percentage of 
men unemployed during the year in each of nine building in- 
dustries 

60 



Unless the precautions are taken there is always 
more or less danger in the plumbing and painting 
trades. In repair work, the plumber often meets 
conditions which demand extreme care if he would 
avoid disease. Faultily installed sewer systems and 
plugged pipes and traps often menace the health not 
only of the householder but also of the plumber who 
repairs the defective work. There is, however, little 
danger for the workman engaged in installing new 
plumbing, as lead pipes are now seldom used. 

In painting there is considerable danger from lead 
poisoning, both from the handling of fresh paint and 
from the dust which is stirred up when old surfaces 
are sand-papered in preparation for a new coat. 
Besides lead, other dangerous materials used in paint- 
ing are turpentine, naptha, and wood alcohol. 

The fine sawdust which the machines in wood- 
working mills produce, is injurious to health. Most 
mills, however, now have special blow pipes con- 
nected with every machine which remove practically 
all this dust and reduce the danger from this cause 
to a minimum. 

Much building work has to be done on scaffolds, so 
there is, in almost all these trades, some danger of 
falling. Among the men who run these risks are 
bricklayers, painters, sheet metal workers, carpen- 
ters, and all kinds of roofers. This danger is more 
pronounced, of course, in the construction of large 
buildings. Structural iron work is one of the most 
hazardous trades. 

Accidents frequently happen in mill work, because 
61 



nearly all of the machines run at a very high rate of 
speed and are necessarily more or less open. Me- 
chanical guards are used wherever possible. 



Promotion 
The building trades offer many opportunities for 
advancement. One reason for this is the large num- 
ber of supervisory positions made necessary by the 
varying character of the work. In this respect 
building is altogether unlike many types of manu- 
facturing in which the worker performs the same 
operation day after day, and after a short preliminary 
learning period, needs little supervision. This makes 
possible the employment of large groups under the 
direction of one man. Building operations, however, 
cannot be organized in this manner. It is next to 
impossible to keep a man making the same parts of a 
house day after day. To be sure, building contrac- 
tors do this as much as they can, for it is always 
profitable to keep men on the work they do best. 
Buildings are almost as different as people. While 
it is true that houses have certain essentials common 
to all, such as foundations, walls, roofs, doors, win- 
dows and so on, it is also true that these parts are 
made of different materials and in different forms. 
"Ready to live in" houses of the same identical pat- 
tern and style are not popular. Instead, houses are 
usually made to order, taking into full account the 
wishes, not to mention the whims, of those who are 
to live in them. This requires that everything be 

62 



carefully planned and shown in drawings and specifi- 
cations. It prevents the building contractor from 
giving one of his carpenters a sample window frame, 
and another a sample door frame, with directions to 
make enough frames like the sample for the whole 
building. It is much more probable that each frame 
and each part of the building will have to be worked 
out separately from a detailed drawing. The direc- 
tion of these separate bits of work requires close 
supervision to see that they are done according to 
drawings and specifications, and to prevent needless 
duplication. 

The number of men employed under a single fore- 
man varies in the different trades and it also varies 
within some of the trades according to the size of the 
jobs. Sheet metal workers and plumbers, for exam- 
ple, work in small groups and the man in direct charge 
is usually a working foreman. This is also true of 
painters and plasterers, except on large jobs. On a 
small job a carpenter or bricklayer foreman, in addi- 
tion to supervising the five or six men in his force will 
probably do the work of a regular journeyman. With 
a group of 20 men he would have to devote all his 
time to supervision. 

A foreman in almost any of the trades must be 
able to read plans, as he must lay out the work. He 
must also know what good work is, for the contractor 
looks to him to keep everything up to required 
standard. It is not necessary for him to be the most 
skilled mechanic in the force. Employers and super- 
intendents say that in selecting foremen they lay 
about equal weight on skill and ability to handle men. 

63 



As a rule foremanship carries with it higher wages, 
although in some cases the pay is the same as that 
of the regular journeyman. The reward for the 
added responsibility comes in the form of steadier 
employment. It is not uncommon for foremen to be 
hired on a salary basis and carried on the payrolls 
throughout the entire year. 

Positions as superintendents are usually filled by 
engineers who are graduates of technical colleges, al- 
though journeymen occasionally work up to these 
positions. 

Small contracting offers another form of advance- 
ment. It requires but little initial investment to 
make a modest beginning, because individual work- 
men in the various building trades provide their own 
tools and few expensive machines are required. Com- 
paratively little working capital is necessary, as pro- 
vision is made in most contracts for part payments 
as the work progresses. 

Summary 
1. About 90 per cent of all the men engaged in build- 
ing work are members of labor unions. Building con- 
tractors have resisted union organization among their 
workmen less than most employers in manufacturing 
industries. Agreements between unions and con- 
tractors govern wages, hours of labor, and appren- 
ticeship regulations. Union organization has raised 
wages, defined the work of the various trades, and 
transferred to the workmen of certain trades various 
kinds of work formerly done by common laborers. 

64 



2. No industrial workers in the city are paid better 
wages than those employed in the building trades. 
The fact that the men usually work a much shorter 
day than those in other industries make their high 
wages even more significant. 

3. More than one-half of the building workers in 
Cleveland are in trades that pay an hourly wage of 
50 cents or over. The union wage scale for skilled 
workers ranges from 37.5 cents an hour for cabinet- 
makers to 70 cents for brick and stone masons, struc- 
tural iron workers, and hoisting engineers. 

4. The strength of the unions is a greater factor 
in the establishment and maintenance of wage stand- 
ards than skill or technical knowledge. This has 
resulted in practical uniformity of wages within each 
trade. 

5. Building workers in the maintenance depart- 
ments of factories have steadier employment, but 
receive lower wages, than those employed on con- 
struction work. 

6. The beginning wage of apprentices, in those 
trades which have established a uniform scale, ranges 
from $5.00 a week to $6.25, and in the fourth year 
from $8.00 to $22.00. Many unions make no definite 
provision as to apprentice wages. Helpers in some 
trades are officially recognized by the unions and are 
paid higher wages than apprentices. 

7. The eight-hour working day is practically uni- 
versal. A half holiday on Saturday is customary in 
most of the trades. 

8. Irregularity of employment is greater in build- 

s 65 



ing work than in any of the other leading industries 
in the city. The largest working force is employed 
in September and the smallest in February. The 
fluctuation is about 50 per cent. The average number 
employed is about 80 per cent of the maximum. 

9. In general, health conditions in building work 
are good; in the plumbing trade there is some danger 
from infection in repair work, and in painting, from 
lead poisoning. In nearly all of the trades there is 
considerable danger from accidents. 

10. The building trades offer many opportunities 
for advancement, because of the large number of 
supervisory positions. Many workmen finally be- 
come small contractors. 



66 



CHAPTER IV 

TRAINING BEFORE THE BOY LEAVES 
SCHOOL 

When we take up the problem of industrial training 
for these trades in the public schools we are immedi- 
ately confronted with certain basic educational facts 
which determine both the time available for such 
training and the type of school organization necessary 
for effective work. 

In the first place, few of the boys who will engage 
in the building trades go beyond the eighth grade and 
less than 60 per cent complete the elementary course. 
The actual extent to which these boys avail them- 
selves of the privileges and advantages of the public 
schools is indicated by the results of an investigation 
conducted by the Survey Staff in the spring of 1915, 
covering 5,000 young people under 21 years of age at 
work in Cleveland. Approximately 31 per cent of 
the boys employed in the building industry stopped 
school at the end of the sixth grade or before, 27 per 
cent at the end of the seventh grade, and 35 per cent 
at the end of the eighth grade, while only seven per 
cent completed as much as a year in high school. 
It is true that when many of them left school the 
age limit for compulsory attendance was lower than 

67 



at present. A study of their ages shows, however, 
that even had the present law been in operation when 
they were in school, the percentages given above 
would not have been materially altered. 

Putting the best possible light on the situation, it 
seems to be clear that whatever is done in the way of 
training boys for the building trades must be started 
in the seventh grade. If it is delayed until the eighth 
grade, over one-half of the boys will have already 
left school, because so many are retarded from one 
to three years that they reach the end of the compul- 
sory attendance period by the time they complete the 
seventh grade. The most important contribution to 
vocational education the elementary schools could 
make would be to carry the boys forward through the 
grades at the rate of one grade each year, so that they 
might enter the junior high school or a trade school 
in which vocational education is possible at least two 
years before the law permits them to leave school and 
go to work. 

In the second place, it is doubtful whether training 
at all closely related to these trades can be given in 
the regular elementary schools as they are now organ- 
ized. There is general agreement among educators 
that vocational training cannot be profitably under- 
taken before the pupil reaches the age of 12, nor be- 
fore the beginning of the seventh grade. The number 
of boys in the seventh and eighth grades of the aver- 
age elementary school is too small to permit the 
differentiation of courses which is indispensable for 
successful vocational training. 

68 



Take, for example, a school with an enrollment of 
800 pupils, which is higher than in most Cleveland 
elementary schools. There would be about 400 boys 
in all, of whom approximately one-sixth, or between 
60 and 70, would be enrolled in the seventh and 
eighth grades. As about seven-eighths of them are of 
native birth, we may assume that when they grow 
up they will be distributed in the various wage-earn- 
ing occupations in approximately the same propor- 
tions now found in the native working population. 
These proportions vary in the different trades. There 
are 26 carpenters to each 1,000 native born workers, 
15 painters, 12 plumbers and gas- and steam-fitters, 
six sheet metal workers, and so on down to cabinet- 
makers, who number one to each 1,000. Applying 
these figures to our group of 60 or 70 seventh and 
eighth grade boys, we find there would be in the 
school about two future carpenters, one painter, and 
one plumber, the remainder of the trades being repre- 
sented by less than one each. All of them combined 
would give a class of only six or seven boys. 

No argument is necessary to prove that differen- 
tiation of courses based on classes of this size is 
administratively impossible. It may be laid down as 
one of the conditions essential to success in vocational 
training that the school administrative unit must 
contain a sufficiently large group of the kind of boys 
who need special training to warrant the expense for 
teachers and equipment. This condition cannot be 
met in the elementary schools. 



The Junior High School 
The junior high school plan, tentatively adopted 
by the Cleveland educational authorities at the be- 
ginning of the present school year, offers a much more 
hopeful field in which to attempt a solution of this 
problem. Here we find an enrollment of four or five 
hundred seventh and eighth grade boys nearly all of 
whom are at least 12 years old. An application of the 
occupational distribution figures gives a very differ- 
ent result from that obtained in the elementary 
school. In a junior high school enrolling 500 boys 
there will be between 40 or 50 who may be expected 
to enter the building trades. This number is suffi- 
cient to justify some consideration of a general indus- 
trial course, although those who are likely to go into 
any particular trade are still too few to make special- 
ized trade training feasible. 

By a general industrial course is meant a differen- 
tiated course which, through the system of elective 
subjects now in use in the junior high school, would 
give to those boys who will probably enter industrial 
occupations after leaving school, or who intend to 
take the technical high school course, an opportunity 
to devote a considerable proportion of their school 
time to subjects which would prove of practical value 
in industrial work. About one-third of the boys in 
the school would be helped by a course of this kind. 
On the other hand there is no good reason for impos- 
ing it on all the boys in the school. Those who expect 
to take an academic high school course or who wish 
to enter commercial or professional occupations can 

70 



more profitably devote their time to other subjects 
in the curriculum. 

What the industrial course shall consist of must be 
worked out from the standpoint of the industrial 
trades as a whole rather than from that of any par- 
ticular group, for the reason that the number of boys 
in a junior high school who will enter a particular 
trade is not enough to justify special equipment or 
special teachers. The problem is treated from this 
general point of view in the summary volume of the 
industrial education reports of this Survey series, 
entitled "Wage Earning and Education/ ' In the 
present study we mention, however, some of the 
types of instruction which the course must include 
if it is to be of value to prospective building workers. 



Mathematics 
Of the subjects taught in school which have a direct 
value to the workmen in these trades none is so 
important as mathematics. Every kind of building 
work calls for the constant use of simple arithmetical 
operations, and many of the trades require a knowl- 
edge of common and decimal fractions, percentage, 
mensuration, square root, geometrical forms, and 
sufficient acquaintance with equations so that formu- 
las can be used. 

It is true that many skilled building workers do not 
possess a thorough knowledge of arithmetic. It does 
not follow, however, that they do not need it. So 
long as they work under the direction of foremen 

71 



who can plan and lay out the work for them they 
have no trouble, but they are unable to do indepen- 
dent work. Due to their lack of early training, the 
acquisition of trade knowledge is a long and labori- 
ous process. Even in the case of that common 
measuring and computing instrument, the steel 
square, they spend years picking up piecemeal a 
knowledge of its use in working out simple problems 
in geometry and trigonometry, which a thorough 
grounding in elementary mathematics would enable 
them to master in a few days' practice. 

There is little foundation for the current assump- 
tion that the handbooks published for use in these 
trades form an adequate substitute for mathematical 
training. The worker can usually find in handbooks 
a rule for doing almost anything, but the rule is use- 
less unless he knows how to apply it. Let us sup- 
pose, for example, that a carpenter has to lay out 
wooden centers for circular arches. He consults one 
of the best known builder's handbooks and finds the 
following rule: 

"To find the radius of an arc, when the chord 
and rise are given: 

Rule — Square one-half the chord, also square 
the rise; divide their sum by twice the rise; the 
result will be the radius." 

To use such rules the workman must not only be able 
to perform the computations required but also be 
familiar with mathematical terminology. Illustra- 
tions of this kind can be multiplied. The ordinary 

72 



handbook presupposes that the man who is to use 
it has had a fairly complete training in mathematical 
principles as applied to surfaces and areas. 

In view of the need for a thorough understanding 
of mensuration and geometrical forms by most 
skilled workmen, a change in the present arithmetic 
course should be considered. The course as now 
taught in the seventh and eighth grades is as follows : 

Seventh Grade— First Half 

1. Checking results 

2. Percentage 

3. The equation 

4. Commercial discount 

5. Simple interest 

6. Time 

Seventh Grade — Second Half 

1. Profit and loss 

2. Commission 

3. Insurance 

4. Ratio 

5. Banking 

Eighth Grade— First Half 

1. Taxation and revenue 

2. Customs and duties 

3. Stocks and bonds 

4. Algebra 

Eighth Grade— Second Half 

1. Mensuration 

2. Algebra 

3. Constructional geometry 

A large majority of the boys who will later enter the 
building trades do not finish the eighth grade, and 
many do not stay in school beyond the seventh grade. 

73 



This means that the part of their arithmetic which 
will be of most value to them after they go to work is 
so far along in the course that most of them never 
reach it. In the opinion of the Survey Staff, men- 
suration and constructional geometry should be given 
in the seventh grade. This might result in putting 
profit and loss, commission, insurance, and banking 
into the eighth grade. None of these subjects is of 
great importance to boys who become industrial 
workers. The average carpenter or bricklayer will 
have few occasions to use even a general knowledge 
of stocks and bonds, or customs and commissions. 
In fact some of the work now given in the second 
half of the seventh and the first half of the eighth 
grade may well be omitted in the industrial course 
and the time thus gained be devoted to more ad- 
vanced work in mensuration and geometry. 

Applied mathematics is the backbone of industrial 
training. Building employers complain less about 
ignorance of arithmetic on the part of their appren- 
tices than of inability to apply arithmetic. What is 
needed in the school is more practice in the applica- 
tion of mathematical principles to real problems. 
It is in developing the pupils' ability to use in a defi- 
nite and concrete way their knowledge of mathe- 
matics that the shop classes yield their greatest 
educational returns. 

Shop Work 
The present course of study requires of all the boys 
one hour a week of manual training in woodwork, and 

74 



those who wish may elect two and one-half hours 
additional work in this subject. It is closely related 
to but one of the building trades — cabinet-making — 
although it also has some resemblance to certain 
types of carpentry. It bears no direct relation to 
plumbing, electrical wiring, sheet metal work, brick- 
laying, stone setting, painting, or any of the other 
building trades. It gives some familiarity with the 
principles involved in the simpler shaping and as- 
sembling operations, and practice with a few hand 
tools. 

A general industrial course will require a sufficient 
variety of shop equipment to give the pupils an 
acquaintance with the main processes in a few of the 
larger trades. The chief use of shop work, however, 
will be as a medium for making more effective the 
instruction in mathematics and mechanical drawing. 



Drawing 
Drawing is next in importance to mathematics. 
Every kind of building work begins with a drawing, 
and throughout every process of construction draw- 
ings constitute the common language of the industry. 
In many trades the workman who is unable to read 
plans cannot hold a job. 

Plan-reading requires more than ability to decipher 
here and there lines that represent doors, windows, 
and pipes. The workman must be able to picture to 
himself just the sort of a door or window, or just 
what grouping of pipes is called for, and know how to 

75 



utilize the exact measurements and locations of the 
various parts shown in the plan so that when finally 
placed they will be where the architect intended them 
to be. 

It is doubtful whether much of the drawing in the 
public schools tends to develop this kind of ability. 
An idea of the drawing work now given maybe 
obtained from the following section copied from the 
recently adopted course in drawing and applied art. 

Eighth Grade 
September, October 

Nature Drawing — Pencil holding; practice the 
character of the line. Draw from flowers and 
plants, berries and seed-pods. Arrange carefully 
against a background, showing just enough 
material for a pleasing study. Place the study 
within a rectangle and pay special attention to 
the filling of the space. Draw the study in with 
a light gray pencil line, the height and width and 
the direction of the lines. All pencil drawings 
must show black and white as well as gray to 
show three values. 

Decorative Composition — Make small light gray 
outline drawings 4 in.-6j^ in. to be used later 
for a calendar. Color these drawings in flat 
washes in harmonious tones. Outline the entire 
study with a black line even width throughout. 

May, June 

Perspective — Tables, chairs, desks. Draw the 

interior of a room, showing one wall, with an 

open door and a window. This is a problem in 

perspective and should be carefully studied. 

76 



Colored crayons may be used in this work. 
Draw buildings; place in a landscape. 
Nature Drawing — Flowers and plants in color and 
pencil. Arrange with an enclosure. 

Very few of the boys who are likely to become build- 
ing workers, or for that matter, very few of those who 
are likely to enter any industrial occupation, will 
make any extensive use of free-hand drawing. The 
sketching of landscapes and lilies cannot be compared 
from the standpoint of future utility, with practice 
in making drawings with rule and compass. 

At present the junior high school course provides 
for only one hour a week in mechanical drawing. 
All of the boys who may be expected to elect an in- 
dustrial course can well afford to devote more time 
to this subject. The aim throughout the course should 
be to teach the pupils to read and interpret drawings 
rather than to give them preliminary training for 
drafting. 

Elementary Science 
Although less directly related to the work than 
mathematics and drawing, an introductory knowl- 
edge of physics and chemistry is needed in many of 
the building trades, particularly in plumbing, steam- 
fitting, inside wiring, carpentry, and painting. The 
plumber and the steam-fitter should know something 
of the most common chemical reactions, the laws 
governing the contraction and expansion of gases, 
water pressure, the physical laws involved in the 
operation of pumps, and so on. The inside wireman 

77 



needs to know the elementary principles of mag- 
netism and electricity; the painter, the theory of 
chemical combinations and the laws of color; the 
carpenter, the effects of heat and moisture on various 
kinds of materials and the laws of mechanics. 

It is not suggested that the junior high school 
should undertake thorough and formal courses in 
physics and chemistry for boys in the seventh and 
eighth grades. But the pupil should not leave school 
without at least knowing that these sciences exist, 
and that only through them can he obtain an under- 
standing of the laws which govern nearly all in- 
dustrial processes. Much of this instruction can be 
given in conjunction with the shop work. To do 
this will require some additional equipment, mainly 
for demonstrational and illustrative purposes. The 
principal mechanical and chemical laws should be 
explained, as the shop problems present examples 
of their relation to materials and processes. Edu- 
cational motion pictures are now available which 
are of great value as aids in this sort of teaching. 

In addition, the pupils should be taught the com- 
mon technical terms well enough to understand their 
use in trade handbooks. The time these boys will 
remain in school is so limited that it is not practicable 
to cover more than a small proportion of the instruc- 
tion they will need in order to advance beyond purely 
routine employment in the trades. After they go to 
work they can obtain much useful information from 
trade journals, handbooks, and popular literature, 
if they have learned in school the use of reference 
78 



books and the meaning of the technical terms com- 
monly used by architects and engineers. 



Industrial Information 
Finally, all boys who expect to leave school at the 
end of the compulsory period should devote some 
time to a study of economic and industrial conditions 
in wage-earning occupations such as hours of labor, 
regularity of employment, wages, health and accident 
risks, opportunities for promotion, apprenticeship 
conditions, and so on. Today most boys stumble into 
rather than choose vocations, because they possess 
no accurate or comprehensive knowledge of the ad- 
vantages and disadvantages presented by different 
kinds of industrial work. The reports of the present 
Survey contain the kind of data needed for such a 
course, but as industrial conditions change rapidly, 
frequent revision will be needed. This revision can 
be made by the teachers if they keep in close touch 
with local sources of information, such as labor 
unions and employers' associations. 



The Technical High Schools 
The technical high schools offer excellent theoretical 
and practical instruction to boys who can afford to 
spend four years in a high school course. It is a fact, 
however, that few of the students in these schools 
become artisans in industry, at least for any length 
of time. The technical training they receive in school 

79 



soon carries them out of the class of manual workers. 
A recent canvass of the present occupations of grad- 
uates from East Technical High School shows that 
only about two per cent are employed in building 
trades. About two-fifths are in colleges, and of those 
at work a large proportion are employed in the draft- 
ing and clerical departments of industrial establish- 
ments. 

The technical high schools give shop work in two 
of the building trades, cabinet making, and sheet 
metal work, and courses in mechanical and archi- 
tectural drawing. During the third and fourth years 
pupils may elect trade courses. In the first term of 
1915-16 there were in the two schools 22 third and 
fourth year students taking the course in cabinet- 
making, and 19 taking architectural drawing. As 
cabinet making is a small trade, recruited almost 
entirely from foreign labor, it is unlikely that many 
of the boys now taking this course will become 
journeymen workmen. 



The Need for a Two-Year Vocational Course 
The boy who eventually becomes a skilled workman 
usually leaves school at the end of the compulsory 
attendance period, that is, when he is about 15 years 
old. Between this time and the minimum entering 
age for apprentices in most of the building trades 
there is a gap of from one to three years which might 
well be utilized in trade training of a more closely 
specialized sort than is now given in the technical 

80 




< B 



high schools, where the first and second year courses 
are in the nature of a preparation for the more ad- 
vanced work of the third and fourth years. Boys 
who are going to enter the trades will not attend high 
school four years, nor do courses of this length hold 
any large number of them past the end of the second 
year. For this reason it is the belief of the Survey 
Staff that some provision should be made for a two- 
year vocational course, comprising instruction closely 
related to the principal trades and affording oppor- 
tunity for specialized work in a variety of industrial 
occupations. Such a course might be given in the 
technical high schools, although there is no doubt 
that a separate trade vocational school would offer 
fewer administrative difficulties, and provide much 
better facilities for giving instruction of immediate 
practical value. 

As this matter is fully discussed in the summary 
volume of the vocational education reports from the 
viewpoint of the whole industrial trades group, it 
need not be taken up in further detail here. It has 
been mentioned to show that between the end of 
the compulsory period and the entering age in the 
building trades there is a real need for trade training 
which cannot be supplied in the junior high school, 
nor under the present organization, in the technical 
high school. 

Summary 
1. Vocational training for boys who will enter the 
building trades must be started not later than the 
6 81 



seventh grade, because the majority of them are 
from one to three years behind grade, and therefore 
reach the end of the compulsory period and leave 
school before completing the elementary course. 

2. It is doubtful whether training at all closely 
related to these trades can be given in the regular 
elementary schools, as they are now organized, be- 
cause the number of boys in the seventh and eighth 
grades of the average elementary school is too small 
to permit differentiation of courses. 

3. In the junior high school the number of boys 
old enough to profit by vocational training is suffi- 
cient to warrant a general industrial course, although 
those who are likely to go into any particular trade 
are not enough to make specialized trade training 
feasible. 

4. The most important subject in an industrial 
course for these trades is applied mathematics. 
Every skilled building worker needs, in addition to a 
thorough knowledge of ordinary arithmetical opera- 
tions, the ability to apply certain principles of geome- 
try to everyday work. 

5. The course of study as now arranged places 
mensuration and constructional geometry in the last 
half of the eighth grade. In view of the fact that a 
majority of the boys who go into building work leave 
school before the end of the eighth grade, these sub- 
jects should be taught earlier in the course and more 
time should be devoted to them. 

6. The shop work now given in the elementary and 
junior high schools is limited to wood work. A greater 

82 



variety of shop activities is needed. The chief voca- 
tional use of shop work will be as a medium for mak- 
ing more effective the instruction in mathematics 
and mechanical drawing. 

7. From the standpoint of future utility freehand 
drawing cannot be compared with mechanical draw- 
ing. More time should be devoted to this latter sub- 
ject. 

8. A knowledge of elementary science is needed in 
many of the building trades. Much valuable instruc- 
tion in physics and chemistry can be given in con- 
junction with the shop work, if adequate equipment 
is provided. Pupils should be taught the common 
technical terms in these sciences well enough to 
understand their use in trade handbooks. 

9. All boys who expect to leave school at the end 
of the compulsory period should devote some time 
in the junior high school to a study of economic and 
industrial conditions in wage-earning occupations. 

10. The technical high schools present excellent 
theoretical and practical courses for boys who can 
afford a four year high school course. Very few of the 
graduates, however, become artisans. 

11. Boys who are going to enter the building 
trades as artisans will not take the four-year tech- 
nical course. To fill the gap now existing between the 
end of the compulsory period and the entering age 
in the trades there is needed a shorter course, not to 
exceed two years in length, to be given either in the 
technical high school or in a separate trade voca- 
tional school. 

83 



CHAPTER V 

TRAINING AFTER LEAVING SCHOOL 

There have been two great changes in the character 
and conduct of the building industries during the 
past third of a century and both of them have re- 
sulted in radical changes in the relation between the 
employer and the apprentice. Not many years ago 
the employer was himself an artisan workman and 
he was personally interested in his apprentice, over 
whom he exercised an almost paternal influence and 
control. Today the employer is usually not an 
artisan workman, but a contracting firm often em- 
ploying hundreds of workers and having an elaborate 
equipment of offices, yards, trucks, and even mills. 
The relation of the modern contracting firm toward 
the apprentice can no longer be of that personal sort 
that existed between the old-time master-carpenter 
and his apprentice. 

The second great change that has come about in 
the building industry is the specialization of work 
that characterizes present-day building operations 
and on which comment has been made in a previous 
chapter. This progressive specialization has brought 
with it new conditions which result in still further 

84 



changes in the relation between employer and ap- 
prentice. When Perry built the fleet that won the 
victory in the battle of Lake Erie, the same ship 
carpenters felled the trees in the forest and carried 
through each successive operation until they put 
the final touches on the interior finish of the cabins. 
They were all-round workmen and they trained their 
apprentices to be all-round workmen like themselves. 

Today the progressive specialization and sub- 
division of industry has brought with it a kind of 
extension or stretching-out of the work under which 
we now find these trades so organized that the most 
skilled men in them need far more technical training 
than the old-time artisans, while the least skilled 
ones need far less training. The working force today 
is not made up of all-round workmen. It consists of 
a few superintendents and foremen, a small number 
of skilled workmen, a large number of what may 
be termed " average workmen," and a considerable 
force of common laborers. These common laborers 
and average workmen are relatively numerous and 
the real problem faced by the contracting firms is to 
secure a sufficient number of highly competent men 
to direct these less competent ones. For this reason 
employers who take a real interest in apprentices 
usually have in mind the training of future foremen 
rather than the training of future journeymen. 

The results of modern changes in the building 
industry, in so far as they affect apprentices, may be 
summarized in three statements. In the first place 
the progressive specialization and subdivision of the 

85 



industry have made the apprentice a far less important 
factor than he was formerly. In the second place 
the growth of contracting firms has made the relation 
between apprentice and employer far less personal 
than it was formerly. In the third place employers 
who are still interested in the education of appren- 
tices are aiming at the training of foremen and super- 
intendents rather than at developing skilled artisans. 
Despite these changed conditions the education of 
the apprentice in the building trades still constitutes 
a most important problem. This is largely due to the 
fact that the building trades are strongly unionized 
and the unions have decided that entrance into the 
trades shall be by means of apprenticeship. In some 
measure the union now takes the place of the old- 
time employer in the matter of caring for the ap- 
prenticeship of the young worker. Under these cir- 
cumstances the training of the apprentice continues 
to be important. 

Attitude of the Unions 
The unions in practically all the trades favor sup- 
plementary instruction for apprentices. They be- 
lieve that only by insisting on a comparatively high 
standard of technical training for the men entering 
the trades can effective organization be maintained, 
and that the training of apprentices represents a 
means to this end. Several of the trades arrange to 
have their apprentices attend the technical night 
schools, and at least one maintains classes for the 
instruction of beginners. 

86 




Art Museum after 17 months' work, October 22, 1914. 
Placing entrance columns 



The Electrical Workers' Union, made up princip- 
ally of inside wiremen, has paid more attention to 
training its workers than any other union organiza- 
tion in the building industry. Rooms have been fitted 
up in the union headquarters where apprentices are 
given instruction by journeymen in the theory of the 
trade. The agreement between the Sheet Metal Con- 
tractors and the Sheet Metal Workers' Union in 
Cleveland includes a provision by which the con- 
tractors assume for their apprentices the payment of 
the nominal tuition fee charged by the technical night 
schools. Attendance is required during the entire 
apprenticeship period. The agreement between the 
Plastering Contractors' Association and the Plaster- 
ers' Union makes similar provision as to payment of 
tuition for the instruction of apprentices in archi- 
tectural drawing during their last year of service. 
The indenture forms in the bricklayers' trade stip- 
ulate that apprentices shall attend the evening tech- 
nical schools for one year. 



Technical Night Schools 
The technical night schools offer five building trades 
courses — sheet metal shop work, sheet metal draft- 
ing, electrical construction, cabinet-making, and 
architectural drawing. In February, 1916, the Sur- 
vey Staff sent to these schools a questionnaire to be 
filled out by all the students enrolled. Replies were 
received from 54 building trades apprentices. These 
replies showed that 11 of the 54 apprentices were 

87 



taking shop courses in their own trades. Two were 
taking shop courses not related to their own trades. 
The remaining 41 were taking courses in drawing. 
These facts indicate the importance of drawing in 
these trades and they also reflect the common opinion 
among apprentices that they will not greatly profit 
by taking shop courses in their own trades in the 
evening technical schools.. 

The ages of these apprentices ranged from 16 to 40 
years. About 15 per cent were under 18, 40 per cent 
from 18 to 20, and 45 per cent 20 years old and over. 
These figures lead to the conclusion that apprentice 
training for the building trades, contrary to the 
common belief, has to do mainly with relatively 
mature workers. So long as attendance is voluntary, 
this is an advantage. The young man of 20 usually 
has a keener realization of his educational deficiencies 
and of the necessity for a thorough grounding in the 
theory of his trade than has the boy of 16. 

The replies also furnished information relating to 
the length of time the students had attended the 
school. There are two terms of 10 weeks each in the 
night school year. Two sessions, of two hours each, 
are given weekly. This makes a total of 80 hours for 
the year. A course covering the full apprenticeship 
period in most of the trades would embrace eight 
terms, or a total of 320 hours. Only two of the ap- 
prentices now enrolled had attended as much as six 
terms, and only nine as much as four terms. Two- 
thirds had attended less than three terms. It is cer- 
tain that the amount of time usually available for 

88 



giving supplementary training to these apprentices 
does not exceed three or four terms, or a total of from 
120 to 160 hours. A good deal can be accomplished 
in this time if it is all devoted to a single subject, 
as appears to be the case at present. It is far too 
little, however, to warrant any but highly specialized 
courses. 

The records as to previous education bear out the 
statements in the preceding chapter with respect to 
the usual educational equipment of boys who enter 
industrial occupations. Only one of the 54 had grad- 
uated from high school, and only five had remained 
in school beyond the elementary course. One-third 
had left school at the end of the seventh grade or 
before. Four had never attended school in this 
country, and 18 had received their education in 
parochial schools. 

Only six of the trades were represented, and of 
these, three furnished but one apprentice each in 
the shop courses which relate to building work. 
The sheet metal workers made the best showing, 
particularly when the size of this trade is taken into 
account. This is undoubtedly due to the stipulation 
in the apprenticeship contract by which attendance 
at night school is made compulsory. 

Unless the plan followed by the sheet metal workers' 
union can be extended to other building trades, the 
outlook for apprentice training is not hopeful. The 
fact is that success in any kind of supplementary 
education for apprentices demands some form of 
compulsion to hold the boys to the work. Such com- 

89 



pulsion can be supplied only by the unions and the 
employers working in close cooperation with the 
school. This plan, which appears to be the only one 
which offers much hope of success at the present 
time, is beset with difficulties, not the least of which 
is the indifference of the employers, the unions, and 
the apprentices themselves. 

The night schools stand ready to provide instruc- 
tion in any technical subject for which a class of 
reasonable size can be formed. The principals say 
that in only a few cases have they been able to secure 
the cooperation of the trade unions in the organiza- 
tion of apprentice classes. Without such coopera- 
tion little beyond the results now obtained can be 
expected. How small these results are may be 
judged by comparing the present enrollment of 54 
building trades apprentices with the total number 
in the city, which a close estimate places at between 
300 and 350. In other words, the ratio of results to 
needs is about one to six. 



Dull Season Classes 
There is a dull season of from two to three months 
each year during which building trades apprentices 
could attend a day technical or vocational school. 
This plan has been tried in Chicago, where, by ar- 
rangement with the Lane Technical High School, 
third and fourth year carpenters' apprentices are re- 
quired by the union to attend the school during the 
months of January, February, and March. It is prob- 

90 



able that similar arrangements could be made in 
Cleveland. Here again, however, success will de- 
pend on the hearty cooperation of unions and em- 
ployers with the school authorities, as the boys will 
not go to school regularly unless attendance is made 
obligatory. 



Training for Journeymen and Helpers 
The technical night schools make little attempt to 
differentiate between training for journeymen and 
training for helpers or apprentices. All three types of 
workers attend the same classes and receive prac- 
tically the same instruction. 

The investigation made in the technical night 
schools by the Survey Staff in February, 1916, ob- 
tained replies from 157 men and boys employed in 
building work who were taking night school courses. 
Full returns were not secured in the West Technical 
Night School, so the total enrollment is somewhat 
larger than this number. Of these 157 men, 54 were 
apprentices, 17 helpers, and 86 journeymen. The 
distribution of journeymen and helpers among the 
various trades represented and the number enrolled 
in each course are shown in Table 15. Two journey- 
men pipe-fitters are omitted from this table. 

Approximately three-fourths of all the men enrolled 
are taking drawing courses. Both schools possess 
well-equipped woodworking shops, but only four of 
the 101 men are taking this shop course. Only 24 
are taking shop courses of any kind, and of these 18 

91 



are enrolled in a single course — sheet metal work. 
Only two — a bricklayer and a paperhanger — are 
enrolled in the mathematics course. 

TABLE 15. — DISTRIBUTION OF 101 JOURNEYMEN AND 

HELPERS IN THE BUILDING TRADES IN THE 

TECHNICAL NIGHT SCHOOLS, BY TRADES 

AND COURSES 



Workers in trade 


■ h 


"3 

■1.9 

J3S 


if 


"3 






^|2 


3 




41 


8J 


6a 


on 


8 2 


sa 


3 J5 » 


H 


Carpenters 


35 


5 


3 










43 


Carpenters' helpers 


1 


1 










1 


3 


Sheet metal workers 








13 


ii 




1 


25 


Sheet metal workers' 


















helpers 




1 




5 


7 






13 


Bricklayers 


7 










i 




8 


Bricklayers' helpers 




1 












1 


Paperhangers 
Painters 


i 


1 


i' 






i 




2 
2 


Plumbers 


l 


3 












4 


Total 


45 


12 


4 


18 


18 


2 


2 


101 



One-fifth of these men had left school with a sixth 
grade education, or less, and another fifth stopped at 
the end of the seventh grade. Only one in seven had 
received any high school training and only one of 
the total number enrolled had graduated from high 
school. Eleven gave no information as to their 
previous educational training. Approximately one- 
tenth were educated in parochial schools and nine- 
tenths in public schools. 

The age distribution among helpers taking night 
school courses differs but little from that among the 
apprentices. About one-fourth were between 16 and 
18 years old, one-fourth between 18 and 20, and one- 

92 



half 20 or over. Only five of the 84 journeymen were 
under 20 years old. Approximately two-thirds were 
from 20 to 30 years old and nearly one-third 30 and 
over. How the age distributions in the three groups 
compare is shown on a percentage basis in Table 16. 



TABLE 16.— PERCENTAGE OF APPRENTICES, HELPERS, AND 

JOURNEYMEN IN BUILDING TRADES ENROLLED 

IN THE TECHNICAL NIGHT SCHOOLS 


Age 


Apprentices 


Helpers 


Journeymen 


16 to 18 
18 to 20 
20 to 30 
30 and over 


15 

40 

41 

4 


24 

24 

46 

6 


6 
65 
29 



Less than two per cent are enrolled in the mathe- 
matics course, a remarkable fact in view of the need 
for a knowledge of this subject in building work. 
The teachers attribute the lack of success in shop 
mathematics courses to the heterogeneous composi- 
tion of the classes. " We have not had good luck with 
it," said one. "The class is composed of machinists, 
electricians, carpenters, and members of several 
other trades and occupations. The machinists are 
interested when the problem relates to such things as 
the strength of steel and iron, but when the teacher 
begins to talk about board measure they go to sleep." 
Similarly the carpenters are not interested when the 
problems relating to machine work are under dis- 
cussion. 

This difficulty is not easy to overcome without 
greater specialization of the classes than is possible 

93 



on the basis of the present enrollment. It is most 
serious in the mathematics course. In the sheet 
metal courses the enrollment is made up entirely of 
journeymen and apprentices from the trade, and in 
the architectural drawing course those employed in 
unrelated occupations form only a small part of the 
class. 

Judging by the length of time most of these men 
attend the school, long courses are not practicable. 
Only about one in eight of the helpers and about one 
in seven of the journeymen had attended night school 
more than one term previous to the present term, 
and nearly half of the journeymen were enrolled for 
the first time this term. This means that the aver- 
age journeyman is unlikely to persevere in night 
school attendance more than two terms. Many stay 
only one term. 

These facts are of marked significance when con- 
sidered in their bearing on such matters as the length 
and content of courses. Journeymen who attend a 
night school do so as a rule in order to make up some 
special deficiency in their trade equipment, not for 
the purpose of obtaining an all-round technical train- 
ing. Nearly all of them would be benefitted by a 
course of two or three years. All but a few, however, 
insist on having their supplementary education in 
small doses. Apparently the teachers and principals 
have made a sincere effort to adapt the courses to the 
demands of the men who attend the school, but the 
fact is that the difficulties inherent in such work are 
nearly insuperable because the constantly changing 

94 



personnel of the school makes it almost impossible 
to organize the classes on any basis except that of 
subject matter, which means fitting students into the 
courses offered, rather than offering courses fitted 
to the needs of particular groups of people. 

The fact that the school is unable to hold the men 
more than a term or two is due in part to the lack of 
flexibility in the organization. Adult workmen go to 
night school with a definite purpose in mind. In 
their work they find themselves confronted with 
some new job with which they are not familiar, or 
they have difficulty in reading plans, or they find 
they are unable to lay out certain work properly 
without a better knowledge of the relations of angles. 
In nearly every case they want only specific instruc- 
tion about a specific thing, they want it in the short- 
est possible time, and very few want exactly the same 
thing. If the school is so organized that it can furnish 
only standardized courses, it cannot meet this situa- 
tion. 

In the night school, as in the day school, success in 
specializing courses requires a large administrative 
unit. The possible variety of courses is in direct ratio 
to the number enrolled. In a class of 200 carpenters 
there would probably be, for example, 10 or 15 men 
who need specialized instruction in stair-building and 
a course in this kind of work would be possible, be- 
cause this number is sufficient to justify the cost of 
instruction. On the basis of the present enrollment 
of 40 or 50 carpenters the class would dwindle to 



95 



three or four, with the result that the per capita 
teaching cost becomes so high as to be prohibitive. 

The enrollment is far below what should be ex- 
pected in a city of nearly three-quarters of a million 
inhabitants. The journeymen workers employed in 
the building trades in Cleveland number approxi- 
mately 22,000. The total number of building j ourney- 
men, apprentices, and helpers, receiving instruction 
in trade subjects in the technical night schools is 
between 150 and 175, or considerably less than one 
per cent. The apprentices alone should muster a 
class of at least this size, while the need of supple- 
mentary instruction for the men in the trades is great 
enough to warrant an enrollment of four or five hun- 
dred journeymen and helpers. 

The relatively small result now obtained is not 
the fault of the schools, but is due largely to the fact 
that the great field of evening vocational instruction 
is treated by the school system as a mere side line of 
the technical high schools. The evening classes are 
taught by teachers who have already given their 
best in the day classes. The enrollment cannot be 
greatly increased so long as this type of education is 
handled as one of the marginal activities of the 
school system, manned by tired teachers and di- 
rected by tired principals. It is a totally different 
kind of job from regular day instruction and requires 
a different administrative organization, with a re- 
sponsible head vested with sufficient authority to 
meet quickly and effectively the widely varying 
demands of its students. This will require the speed- 

96 



ing-up of administrative methods in the establish- 
ment of courses and the employment of teachers, a 
freer hand for the principals as regards both ex- 
penditures and policy, and most important of all the 
organization of all forms of continuation and night 
school instruction under a separate department. 

The night schools in Cleveland, as in most cities 
in the country, fail to render their full educational 
return because they are not taken seriously by the 
educational system and by the community. The 
universal need of an adaptable, well-organized sys- 
tem for placing the benefits of supplementary educa- 
tion within the reach of every adult member of the 
community has not yet been recognized. When it is, 
the work of the evening schools will require a sep- 
arate organization, to some degree at least a sepa- 
rate teaching force, and a curriculum extensive 
enough to reach every phase of the industrial life of 
the city. 

Summary 
1. Modern conditions have brought about three 
changes in the conditions of apprenticeship: (a) 
progressive specialization and subdivision of the in- 
dustry have made the apprentice a far less important 
factor tha'n he was formerly; (b) the growth in the 
size of contracting firms has made the relation be- 
tween apprentice and employer less direct and per- 
sonal; (c) employers interested in the education of 
apprentices aim chiefly at the training of foremen, 
rather than of journeymen workmen. 
7 97 



2. The unions in practically all the trades favor 
supplementary instruction for apprentices. 

3. The technical night schools offer five building 
trades courses — sheet metal shop work, sheet metal 
drafting, electrical construction, cabinet-making, and 
architectural drawing. About three-fourths of the 
building trades apprentices in the night schools were 
taking drawing courses. Only one-fifth were taking 
shop courses in their own trades. 

4. Apprentice training for the building trades has 
to do mainly with relatively mature workers. Nearly 
seven-eighths of the apprentices enrolled were 18 
years old or over. Nearly one-half were at least 20 
years old. 

5. The average length of attendance is very short. 
Two-thirds of these apprentices had attended less 
than three terms. 

6. Only six trades are represented by the appren- 
tices enrolled. Sheet metal workers make the best 
showing. 

7. Some form of compulsion, supplied by the em- 
ployers, the unions, or both, is necessary to secure 
the attendance of apprentices in night schools. 

8. The number of building trades apprentices en- 
rolled in the technical night schools does not exceed 
one-sixth of the estimated number in the city. 

9. Day classes for apprentices during the dull 
season might be successful if the hearty cooperation 
of the employers and unions with the school authori- 
ties were secured. 

10. The technical night schools make little attempt 



to differentiate between training for apprentices and 
training for journeymen and helpers. 

11. About three-fourths of the journeymen and 
helpers enrolled are taking drawing courses, and 
about one-fourth shop courses. Less than two per 
cent were taking courses in mathematics. 

12. The teachers attribute the lack of success in 
shop mathematics to the heterogeneous composition 
of the classes. 

13. Only short courses are practicable, as only a 
small number of journeymen and helpers attend 
more than one or two terms. These men need highly 
specialized instruction, which is possible only with a 
flexible organization and a large enrollment. 

14. Less than one per cent of the building workers 
in the city are enrolled in the technical night schools 
at the present time. The relatively insignificant re- 
sults now obtained are due to the fact that evening 
vocational instruction is merely one of the marginal 
activities of the school system, directed by tired 
principals and taught by tired teachers. When the 
universal need of such instruction is recognized, it 
will require a separate organization, a separate 
teaching force, and a much wider curriculum. 



99 



CHAPTER VI 

A SUMMARY OF TRAINING RECOMMEN- 
DATIONS 

The recommendations of this report on education for 
the building trades may be summarized under five 
headings. 

1. Reduce Retardation 
The first, and one of the most important steps in im- 
proving the educational preparation of workers en- 
tering the building trades, is to reduce retardation 
or slow progress in the elementary grades. At present 
it is approximately true of the men entering the 
building trades that one-third drop out of school by 
the sixth grade, two-thirds by the seventh grade, and 
three-thirds by the eighth grade. Now according to 
law a boy cannot go to work until he is 15, and if he 
has made normal progress he will have completed 
the eight grades of the elementary course before he 
has reached that age. In point of fact many of these 
boys do not make normal progress through the grades 
and hence they reach the age of 15 before completing 
the elementary course. As a result, they fall out of 
school without having had those portions of the work 

100 



in reading, drawing, mathematics, and elementary- 
science which would be of most direct use to them in 
their future work. These are some of the reasons 
why the first step in a program to secure better edu- 
cation for workers in the building trades is to reduce 
retardation throughout the elementary schools. 

2. General Industrial Courses in Seventh, 
Eighth, and Ninth Grades 
If retardation could be largely reduced in the ele- 
mentary grades, industrialized courses could be 
profitably introduced in the seventh, eighth, and 
ninth grades for boys intending to enter the building 
trades. The specific changes recommended include 
as their most important elements : 

a. Increased training in industrial arithmetic be- 
ginning in the seventh grade. 

b. Courses in industrial drawing. 

c. Courses in elementary science relating to in- 
dustry. 

d. Courses in industrial information. 

e. General courses in industrial shop work. 
These are general industrial courses and it is 

recommended that they be introduced as prominent 
features of the work of the junior high schools. They 
are not intended to take the place of specialized 
courses in the building trades, but they are proposed 
as courses valuable for all future industrial workers 
and within which certain adaptations should be 
made for those who are intending to enter the build- 
101 



ing trades. Special trade preparatory courses will 
be discussed in the following section. 



3. A Two- Year Industrial Trade School 
In addition to the general industrial courses in junior 
high schools that have been recommended in the 
previous section, there should be established a two- 
year industrial trade school for boys. It should re- 
ceive boys 14 to 16 years of age who desire direct 
trade preparatory training. There are good reasons 
why the present elementary schools, the proposed 
junior high schools, and the existing technical high 
schools cannot satisfactorily take the place of a 
specialized two-year course in giving boys direct 
trade preparatory education. Boys who go through 
the technical high schools do not remain in the build- 
ing trades as artisans. This is shown by the fact that 
less than two per cent of the graduates of these 
schools are working in the building trades. 

The elementary schools and the junior high schools 
cannot conduct satisfactory trade preparatory courses 
for the building industry for the reason that they do 
not bring together at any one point a sufficient num- 
ber of these future workers to make it possible to 
teach them economically. This is a consideration 
which conditions every plan for the organization of 
industrial education. It is a question of the com- 
munity's capacity to absorb workmen trained for 
any given occupation. In Cleveland about 4,000 
boys leave the public elementary schools each year. 

102 



Approximately 2,400 of them drop out of the ele- 
mentary schools, or leave after graduating from them, 
while the remaining 1,600 go on to high school. The 
future workers in the building trades will be largely 
recruited from the 2,400 boys who leave the ele- 
mentary schools each year. Most of them range in 
age from 14 to 16 and in school advancement from 
the fifth to the eighth grade. They represent a cross- 
section of a large part of the city's adult manhood of 
a few years hence. 

Now the census figures tell us that if present con- 
ditions maintain in the future only about 100 of the 
4,000 boys leaving school each year will be carpen- 
ters. For the purposes of the present inquiry, we 
may assume that these 100 future carpenters are to 
be found among the 2,400 boys who do not go on to 
high school. But Cleveland has 108 elementary 
schools and these 100 future carpenters are widely 
scattered among them. Even if we knew which boys 
were destined to become carpenters, and even if we 
knew when they would leave school, and even if 
we should decide to give them all trade preparatory 
education for the last two years of their school life, 
we should still have an average trade class in car- 
pentry of only two boys in each elementary school. 
This is administratively and educationally impossible. 
For similar reasons specialized trade preparatory 
classes in junior high schools would prove exceed- 
ingly difficult to organize. 

The whole situation is changed, however, when we 
gather in a central school all these future artisans 

103 



who have decided that they wish to prepare for 
specific trades. Under these conditions classes would 
be sufficiently large so that specialized training could 
be given and special equipment provided. This 
work would best be undertaken in a school entirely 
devoted to the purpose, but such courses might be 
organized in connection with the present technical 
high schools. This arrangement would be less de- 
sirable and probably give inferior results. The impor- 
tant point, however, is not so much the organiza- 
tion or curriculum for these classes, it is the funda- 
mental fact that trade classes can be wisely organ- 
ized only when sufficiently large numbers of pupils 
can be gathered in one place so as to make the work 
efficient and economical. 

The effectiveness of the trade-preparatory train- 
ing recommended in this section would be greatly 
increased if the upper limit of the compulsory at- 
tendance period for boys should be placed at 16 
years instead of at 15 years, as it is now. 



4. Trade Extension Classes for Apprentices 
The apprentice in the building trades is a more 
important factor than in most other trades because 
these trades are highly unionized and the unions 
have agreed that entrance to their crafts should be 
exclusively through apprenticeship. At the present 
time the technical high schools offer evening classes 
for apprentices in the building trades. About one- 
seventh of the apprentices of the city are enrolled in 

104 



these classes. In the main they are full-grown men, 
and in general they do not want shop work related 
to their own trades but prefer instead to enroll in 
classes in drawing. 

The considerations presented in the previous sec- 
tion bear in minor degree on the problem of provid- 
ing evening instruction for trade apprentices. The 
essential for efficient work is that a sufficient number 
of pupils be brought together so as to make it possible 
to organize specialized classes in the different kinds 
of work that the pupils want and need. So long as 
there are only 50 apprentices enrolled in the entire 
city, and these represent a number of trades, many 
different stages of advancement, and a variety of 
needs, truly efficient work will be impossible. Better 
conditions can be brought about only through the 
cooperation of the unions, the employers, and the 
school people. Employers and unions must not ex- 
pect the schools to do their best work in this field 
unless they on their part will compel their apprentices 
to attend the classes. Similarly the schools cannot 
expect to get and retain this active cooperation 
unless they demonstrate that they deserve it by 
organizing and maintaining apprenticeship classes 
with courses practical in content and effective in 
method. 



5. Trade Extension Work for Journeymen 

The evening technical high schools now maintain 

shop classes and drawing classes for workers in the 

105 



building trades. Less than one per cent of the 
workers in these trades are enrolled in these classes. 
There is little differentiation in the school work 
offered to helpers, apprentices, and journeymen. 
The result is that the work is much less efficient 
than it might well be. It cannot be rendered much 
more efficient than it is until the classes are increased 
in size, and as a result the work differentiated and 
specialized. This type of improvement will result 
only from putting the night school work in the hands 
of skilful and well-paid directors and teachers who 
bring to it a degree of energy, enterprise, ingenuity, 
and adaptability that it is unreasonable to expect 
and impossible to get from day school teachers 
who have already given the best that is in them to 
their regular classes and are giving a fatigued margin 
of work and attention to their night school pupils. 

Evening school classes for journeymen in the build- 
ing trades must eventually be almost literally pre- 
pared to teach "any man any thing at any time." 
Quite literally they must be prepared to give trade 
instruction of any sort at any time that it is de- 
manded by a group of workers of reasonable size 
and sufficient previous experience. The artisan 
enters the evening class for the specific purpose of 
securing immediate help out of present difficulties. 
He wants instructors to tell him and show him what 
he wants to know. He expects his instructor to 
know more about his job than he himself knows. He 
doesnot come to evening school to acquire a general 
education, but to learn some specific thing. To meet 

106 



these requirements efficiently in giving extension 
education to journeymen in the building trades, the 
work in the Cleveland evening schools will have to 
be directed by able people giving their whole time 
to the work and having a far greater freedom in 
organizing classes, adopting and changing courses 
of study, and employing teachers than is now the 
case. 



107 



CLEVELAND EDUCATION SURVEY REPORTS 

These reports can be secured from the Survey Committee of 
the Cleveland Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio. They will be 
sent postpaid for 25 cents per volume with the exception 
of "Measuring the Work of the Public Schools" by Judd, 
"The Cleveland School Survey" by Ayres, and "Wage Earn- 
ing and Education" by Lutz. These three volumes will be 
sent for 50 cents each. All of these reports may be secured 
at the same rates from the Division of Education of the 
Russell Sage Foundation, New York City. 

Child Accounting in the Public Schools — Ayres. 

Educational Extension — Perry. 

Education through Recreation — Johnson. 

Financing the Public Schools — Clark. 

Health Work in the Public Schools — Ayres. 

Household Arts and School Lunches — Boughton. 

Measuring the Work of the Public Schools — Judd. 

Overcrowded Schools and the Platoon Plan — Hart- 
well. 

School Buildings and Equipment — Ayres. 

Schools and Classes for Exceptional Children — Mit- 
chell. 

School Organization and Administration — Ayres. 

The Public Library and the Public Schools — Ayres 
and McKinnie. 

The School and the Immigrant. 

The Teaching Staff — Jessup. 

What the Schools Teach and Might Teach— Bobbitt. 

The Cleveland School Survey (Summary) — Ayres. 






Boys and Girls in Commercial Work — Stevens. 

Department Store Occupations — O'Leary. 

Dressmaking and Millinery — Bryner. 

Railroad and Street Transportation — Fleming. 

The Building Trades— Shaw. 

The Garment Trades — Bryner. 

The Metal Trades— Lutz. 

The Printing Trades — Shaw. 

Wage Earning and Education (Summary) — Lutz. 



